[UPDATED 1.11] Comprehensive item and weapon guide

Overview

[Updated for version 1.11]Info about weapon stats, optimal traits, damage patterns, how to use them, tips for using forge and shrine effectively, bot loadouts, unclear game mechanics relevant to damage and weapons, hopefully all you need to know about weapons.Feb 2021 by VernonKun: The whole guide is being revised. You can access the old version of this guide using this link:https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/80dfsg/centralised_weapon_discussion_v3/

Introduction

This guide is a product of many community discussions on http://reddit.com/r/vermintide, trying to provide information as objective as possible, while still being helpful. It starts by giving a few tips on how to obtain and manage loot, describes all available weapon traits, provides all relevant info for every weapon, sorted by characters (inventory screen order) and finishes with a few tips on how to gear up and play with bots.

Every weapon section consists of a summary of weapon traits, a few trait combinations that are considered top choices and notes on the weapon strengths and weaknesses, explaining why are the traits ranked the way they are. You might find more traits in the Top section that you can roll on the weapon, or traits that are not possible to roll together. This is because sometimes it’s impossible to declare only one trait combination as ‘perfect’ and the traits themselves depend on your own preference. As a general rule, you want to get as many Top traits on your weapon as possible, but if you want to know what exactly is possible, look for the “Top trait combinations” right below the trait table, or check:

• Verminguide[verminguide.com]
• Full list of possible trait combinations[docs.google.com]
• attack patterns and damage spreadsheet – refer to this for most up-to-date info, it’s the source for all numbers later in this guide[docs.google.com]

Other useful and interesting links:

• Weapon Attack Speeds from Vermintide

• Headshot – How it works from Vermintide

• A list of attacks that interrupt Stormvermin’s overhead attack (devastating blows also upgrades Attacks, not just pushes) from Vermintide

• Facts About Clan/Slave Rat Damage & Behaviour (Datamined & Tested) from Vermintide

• [Guide] Coordination, Decision Making & Strategy from Vermintide

The traits are listed in 4 categories:

Top – these traits are essential to make the weapon viable, or benefit greatly from it’s moveset; these are the traits you are primarily looking for when rolling in the shrine and wouldn’t accept a weapon that has none of them

Good – these traits work very well with the weapon, but the weapon works fine without them. There are usually many useful traits that are very similar, subject to personal preference, or mutually exclusive.

OK – these traits have some use, but there are other, better traits to take instead; you would keep rolling if you have tokens to spend, but if you don’t a weapon with top/top/OK traits is worth trying

Poor – these traits either harm the weapon, or the benefit is so marginal that it’s practically useless – you won’t notice the trait is even there; it’s therefore locking one of the slots that could be used by a much better stuff. You’ll always re-roll a weapon with such a trait, because it’s not worth the tokens to unlock it.

Each weapon section also includes a table with damage values, taken from this spreadsheet[docs.google.com], here’s an example and explanation:

• Normal enemy: slave rat, clan rat, globadier, assassin
• Armoured enemy: stormvermin, ratling gunner
• Resistant enemy: packmaster, ogre
• some attacks have different damage, based on which attack in the sequence it is; here, first two normal attacks hit two targets, while the third attack hits one target for higher damage
• 3/2 means hitting first enemy for 3 damage and second enemy for 2 damage
• /0… means that the weapon hits infinite enemies after the values listed there, but deals no damage to them
• headshot bonus can be a multiplier (x2, x1.75, …) or just an addition (+1)
• ranged weapons also have number of targets hit with each projectile and friendly fire damage

This table gives you a simplified idea of how strong the weapon push is against normal and armoured targets. All weapons except shields have P1-2 against normal rats and P1 against armour by default, which is boosted to P3 normal, P2 armour with devastating blow (no matter if dual daggers or 2h hammer). Shields are an exception, they start at P3/P2 and get buffed to P4/P2 with dev blow.

• P1 – Rat stutters in place
• P2 – Rat is pushed back a few steps
• P3 – Rat is shoved far away and sometimes falls over
• P4 – Rat flies backward and falls on its back

This table shows how much stamina the weapon has (3 stamina = 3 shields = 6 blocks), how fast you move while blocking, aiming or charging, and dodge info: how many full dodges in a row you can do (efficient dodge), how far and how fast each dodge is. Infinite efficient dodge means you can spam dodge forever and never get tired. The fabled swift strider trinket changes the efficient dodge count value to infinite.

Abbreviations that may be used in this guide (or other discussions)

• nm – nightmare
• cata – cataclysm
• wh/saltz(y) – witch hunter
• ww/elf/kerr(illian) – waywatcher
• dr/bardin – dwarf ranger
• bw/sienna – bright wizard
• es/krub – empire soldier
• roger – rat ogre
• gas /globe- gasrat/globadier
• pack – packmaster
• sv/storm – stormvermin
• clan – clan rat (clothed)
• slave – slave rat (naked, smaller)
• tf – trueflight
• snd/s&d – sword and dagger
• mc – mastercrafted
• kb – killing blow
• db – devastating blow
• pb – perfect balance
• bl – bloodlust
• ss – swift slaying

Many thanks to u/a8bmiles and u/Suicazura, whose posts I used in this guide and many others on http://reddit.com/r/vermintide that helped me put all the weapon trait info together, provided feedback, or essential information sources. Big up especially to u/UnShame for his continuous work on weapon spreadsheets.

Basics – Getting loot and progressing on the early levels

New Loot Tables from Vermintide

Expected Value Loot Table from Vermintide

Don’t focus on one character and salvage everything that isn’t for them. This is the #1 most common mistake newbies make and most people come to regret it.

Don’t destroy weapons unless they’re duplicates. For the most important reason, you might not always want to play the same character and same weapons. Variety is the spice of life. For another reason, bots use the equipment at your inn box if you are the host, so this will make playing the game intensely easier (a well equipped team of bots with oranges can carry you through nightmare basically on their own). Salvaging 10+ orange weapons you could use successfully on nightmare (even without traits) in order to gamble for an orange weapon is a terrible idea as a new player who doesn’t yet have at least 1 orange of each type.

Running missions is by far the best way to obtain gear, that and doing Quests and Contracts. Don’t do quests for weapons, get trinkets you don’t have or hats you don’t have, as weapons are easy to obtain. If you must get weapon variety fast, pray using the tokens you earn from contracts, but it’s often better to keep your tokens for later. Doing hard runs with all books or short mission nightmare runs without any books will not only get you better at the game, it (due to the new improved loot tables) almost always rewards a blue.

You shouldn’t focus on a single class for too long, experiencing other classes lets you understand their strengths and weaknesses better. There are plenty of new players who play only elf and feel like they are gods and everyone else sucks. It’s also harder to find open games if you are limited to one character.

And for the love of god, don’t salvage orange weapons just because they are not for your current character. You’ll change opinion in a few days and then lament because you salvaged a weapon that you can’t seem to get now. Sure, you can get it again from a shrine or forge, but sometimes RNGesus is not on your side and it can get very expensive. All for what? 20 orange tokens? That you get from half an hour of last stand or one daily contract? Not worth it.

Collect at least one copy of each orange weapon (yes, even the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ones), maybe more for the weapons that you are going to use a lot, and only then start salvaging.
Doing the daily contracts is a good way to get items, plus the bonus crafting tokens. Farming a single map will get boring pretty soon.

Basics – Forge and Shrine

=== Forge ===
The forge stands in a corner next to the fireplace in the inn. You can use it to combine items of the same quality into higher ones (fusing), unlock traits of your new weapons (upgrading) or destroy unwanted items for crafting tokens (salvaging)

Fusing
If you can’t obtain oranges by rolling because you aren’t yet good enough to do nightmare runs with some books, and aren’t patient enough until you get them from nightmare non-book missions (about 1 in 6 missions?), what you could do is collect 5 blue items and fuse them at the forge.

Fusion costs 0 same-type tokens if you fuse 5 items, or more if you fuse less. The item you get out is always randomly chosen from amongst what you put in- put in 5 blue axe and shield, get 1 orange axe and shield. Put in 2 fireball staves, 2 repeater handguns and 1 hagbane bow, you have a 40% chance of one of the first two and a 20% chance of the last one. If you put in 2 handguns, 2 crossbows and pay tokens to skip the last thing, you have a 50-50.

If you don’t care about who you play or what you get (basically all weapons are now viable, perhaps except cataclysm), you can fuse 5 random items. If you want to make sure they’re segregated by class, only fuse them when you have 5 from that same character. Or 5 blue melee for a character, or so forth. If you really like a weapon, you can keep holding on to it until you get 3+ of that weapon, then upgrade it with only duplicates for a guaranteed orange.

Upgrading
Once you have the traits you want, you unlock them at the tab #2, “Upgrade”. Each trait costs more and more to unlock, so oranges cost 60 blue (10 + 20 + 30). Often if your item’s 3rd trait isn’t great, it’s best to just leave it locked to save 30 blue for later.

Salvaging
The third tab allows you to destroy any item, except for purple (community) quality. Yes, even red (veteran) items or any trinkets and hats. It’s not advised to overuse it, however. Destroying one orange item will give you about 15-25 tokens, which you can easily get after doing one nightmare game, completing a contract, or playing last stand for a bit. Be careful when salvaging, there is no way to undo the process, although you can cancel it, if you are fast enough, by pressing Esc before the bar is complete.

=== Shrine of Solace ===
The shrine unlocks at level 5, stands to the left of the forge and has three tabs as well. “Pray” lets you generate weapons for specific characters for crafting tokens, “Offer” can re-roll the traits on your weapons and “Invocate” can improve the % of the traits you have unlocked.

Pray
To get a new weapon, select a character by moving its purple trinket to the area on the left. The weapon generated will be randomly picked from this character’s weapon pool. Choosing the quality of the weapon determines the quality of tokens you have to pay with. Optionally, select ranged or melee to narrow down the pool of items, but this also increases the price and the selection is still random. You can’t get veteran (red) weapons, DLC weapons, or any trinkets or hats from praying.

If you keep getting other weapons than you want, you can always salvage them at the forge, but you’ll still be losing tokens. Unless there is a very specific weapon you want and you have the tokens to afford it, the tokens are better spent on re-rolling traits. You can get weapons more effectively from playing maps or fusing.

Offer
You reroll existing loot at the shrine, using tab #2. It’s worth doing this only for oranges, or maybe blues. Don’t bother with greens. You pay 5 orange to pick between two sets of traits (your old ones or a new set). So if you do this 50 times, you get to pick the best trait set out of 51 chances.

Know that each weapon has about 190 possible trait sets (not all combinations are possible!). If you’re in doubt, ask Reddit or research before you spend tokens rerolling. For instance, “Berserking” + “Bloodlust” is impossible except on Wizard Swords and Flaming Swords. Killing Blow cannot appear with Bloodlust except on Red Pickaxe. Regrowth and Bloodlust only can appear together with Crossbow. Et cetera. Use verminguide[verminguide.com] or this spreadsheet[docs.google.com] for all possible combinations.

Finding a two-trait combo you want is not hard: Maybe 60 oranges, 100 if unlucky. Finding a two-trait combo where you are wiling to accept only about half of possible third traits often costs about 200 orange tokens. Finding an exact three trait combination (including if it is two traits that have only a single possible third trait, such as the famous Killing Blow Normal, Regrowth Normal Rapier) costs about 650-1000 orange tokens on average, but can run much, much higher if you are unlucky.

Invocate
Now you have a bunch of traits. Some of them will have random percentages (EG: “3-10% chance to gain 10 HP on kill”, when you unlock it, picks a random number. It might pick 6.5%.). You can upgrade the random percentages by purchasing rerolls at the Shrine, using tab #3, “Invocate”. Pick the item, and the trait, and pay 6 oranges (for a) to get a reroll. You keep the highest. Do this 10 times and you keep the highest roll out of 11, for instance.

For a new player, for greens and blues I would not obsess over traits. You’ll be replacing them anyway. Whether by drop or upgrading in the forge. Neither will keep the traits. As a newbie, if you find an item with a really good trait like healing, you could consider giving it a few invocations if it unlocks poorly. But I wouldn’t waste tokens trying to find traits much. You could be using those tokens to upgrade gear in the forge or pray for items.

Basics – Quests and Contracts

The bounty board unlocks once you finish all maps from the base game on any difficulty (no dlc maps or last stand needed). You can find it in the inn on a wall to the left of the shrine and forge, or access it by a shortcut U.

The board generates 3 quests and 6 contracts randomly each day. These are the same for all players, so you can expect higher traffic on the contract maps that day and you can find current contracts posted on reddit. PC and consoles have a different set of contracts, however.

The quests are items – weapons, trinkets and hats (except dlc weapons) – that you can unlock with keys from contracts. You always see what the item is before you accept the quest. The current active quest will be shown in upper right corner. Once you have a quest active, complete a key contact and hand it in; the key will count towards your active quest. If you turn in a key without having an active quest, the key is wasted. Once you have enough keys on the quest, turn it in to receive the item. Accepting a new quest will delete the old one with all keys you had there.

Your item priority when choosing quests should be the following:

• Trinkets – you can only get them through map loot rng, so grab any orange trinket you miss, no matter how close you are to finish the current quest
• if you are interested in collecting hats, they are just as painful to get as trinkets; if you don’t care, skip this point
• red weapons and hats are very hard to roll and even if you have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ one on the board, taking it reduces the item pool for other reds (note: you can get duplicate reds from bounty board, but not by loot drop)
• orange weapons with good traits; you can get weapons by playing, forging or praying, but if there is a nice one, or you have nothing better to take, go for it; don’t be shy to abandon this quest the second something better comes in
• lower quality items, are you a collector or what?

So how do you get the keys? By doing contracts. There are always two contracts that reward you with a key – one also rewards a random boon and can be completed on any difficulty, the other has to be done on nightmare+ and reward orange crafting tokens as well. The goal you have to compete and map you have to do it on are generated randomly (but same for all players).

Apart from the key contracts, there is a contact for green, blue and orange tokens that have to be completed at least on normal, hard and nightmare respectively, plus one more contract for a boon (easy+). Most players don’t bother with the blue and green token contracts, but it can be a nice bonus source of tokens for new players.

Some contracts require you to play dlc maps. You can only select and complete these contracts if you own the dlc. Given that you can play the maps and get dlc items for free, it’s a very fair deal. At least one key contract should be guaranteed to be for a vanilla map.

There is a special contract for two keys and a lot of orange tokens every Sunday, but it has to be completed in cataclysm. The goal is always the same: Complete map X

You have to accept a contract to start working on it. You can have 3 contracts active at once, shown on the right side of the board. You can decline a contract you’ve taken but can’t finish to make room for others; the progress on the contact will be lost and if it’s one of the current day contracts you can take it again, otherwise it disappears.

Once the contract is completed, select it and turn it in to receive the reward. A key will immediately count towards the current quest and boons will activate. You may wish to wait with turning the contracts in; they don’t expire while in the active section and you can store them indefinitely (even incomplete). You may wish to stock up on damage boons or keys and turn them in when needed.

The optimal contract management could look like this:

• Day 1: You have nothing better to take, so you select a weapon quest for 6 keys. Complete 2 key contracts but don’t turn them in, there may be something better tomorrow.
• Day 2: Nothing good on the board. Complete key contracts, turn one in and save the other; you have 3 keys stored now.
• Day 3: Nothing good again. Turn in one key and use that slot to complete all contracts you want with a key contract as the last one. Finish the day with 3 keys on the weapon and 3 in storage.
• Day 4: Orange potshare trinket! Dump the weapon quest, ♥♥♥♥ the keys it had. Take new quest and put 3 keys you had stored + 2 keys from today. Quest is at 5/9 right now.
• Day 5: Add 2 keys to the quest. 7/9
• Day 6: Red sword and dagger! Fortunately, you can use the 2 keys today to finish the trinket and take the red quest.
• Day X: Nothing new for ages, but the past two weeks you were storing 2key cata contracts. You complete new contracts on the last slot and finish with a key contract.
• Day X+1: Orange trinket! You can immediately pump your 2+2+1 keys you have stored and 2 more from today into it. You’ll be able to finish it tomorrow and choose a new quest.

Basics – Bounty Board Boons

Apart from getting items and crafting materials, the bounty board also provides you with ‘boons’ – limited time bonuses that apply to all your and your bots’ weapons. The boons activate when you turn in a contract and cannot stack – new boon will just reset the timer.

Damage boon – duration 2 hours, improves all damage by 25%
This is the most interesting one and a reason to play contracts even for veteran players with perfectly optimalized gear. 25% is not that much and on most weapons it only leads to unneccessary overkills, but on some it pushes you over certain breakpoints that allow you to pull off some kills much easier. You’ll want to stock up on these and pop one for difficult cata runs.
The following list is for notable damage boon effects on cataclysm.

• Dwarf pick – normal attacks kill slaves in one hit and clans in two, charged kill clans in one hit. Major change in viability
• Trueflight – with hakwkeye you kill SV in one shot
• Longbow – you kill SV on one headshot even without hawkeye
• 2h hammer – normal attacks kill clanrats on bodyshots
• Repeater handgun – shots kill clanrats in one hit, great with scavenger and rupture
• Glaive – normal attack second target kills slaves in one hit (2 slaves per hit in hordes)
• Repeater pistol – normal shots kill slaves in one, clans in two hits (need to verify this one)

Let me know if I missed anything

Stamina boon – duration 1h, gives you +1 shield of stamina
Basically a free perfect balance, great for weapons with 2 shields (dual daggers, falchion, glaive), weapons with 3 shields are safer when reviving teammates.

Defense boon – duration 2 hours, 25% damage reduction
Less damage is always good. With drakefires or wizard staff, exploding from overheat while at full health keeps you barely alive (not an actual strategy, just a neat bonus)

Stagger boon – duration 2 hours, improves push stagger
Nice for weapons with poor push (all elven melee, rapier, falchion, wizz dagger) but if you run dev blow it’s just a marginal improvement. Not very interesting.

Items – Trinkets

WORK IN PROGRESS

– when do slots unlock
– how do you get them
– list, description, detailed mechanics and comments on usage
– community trinkets

Items – Hats

WORK IN PROGRESS

– getting hats

Vermintide Hats Picture Compilation

Items – Veteran (red) weapons

Weapons in Vermintide come in 5 rarity types:

• white/plenty is the starting gear with low damage and no trait
• green/common has one trait but low damage
• blue/rare has two traits and medium damage
• orange/exotic has 3 traits and max damage
• red/veteran has two sets of 3 fixed traits with max percentage, damage is the same as orange

You can reroll traits for all weapons at the shrine. Red weapons are an exception, they have 2 sets of fixed traits you can switch between. Switching a trait set means you have to unlock them again in the forge. The red traits always have max percentage, other weapons may need to be improved in the shrine.

Majority of the red weapons have at least one usable trait set that makes them perfectly viable for cataclysm. Getting reds shouldn’t be your primary focus, it only leads to disappointment, view them more as collective rewards and a good alternative to spending thousands of tokens on each weapon.

Some red weapons do have unique trait combos you won’t find on orange weapons. Most notably elf sword, sword & dagger, glaive, WH axe, pick, hammer, mace and some shields.

Red items appear on the top of the loot table on nightmare and cataclysm. There is a 25% chance that two red items appear on cata, making it slightly better to farm red items, but only if you can finish full book runs consistently. For most players nightmare will be a safer bet. 3 tomes and 2 grimoires are absolutely essential, loot dice also help a lot. Pay attention to players wearing luck trinkets and let them open chests. Don’t get too focused on farming reds, however. The more you try the harder it is and it can get frustrating quite fast. Forget about reds, focus on gittin gud and you’ll soon have plenty of them.

Unlike other items, you cannot get duplicate red items from map loot. The red item pool get smaller with each one you get, so even if you get something you’ll never use, it gets you one step closer to the good stuff. You can also find reds on bounty board from time to time, except dlc reds. It’s completely random so there’s no guarantee that all of them will appear. This is also the only way of getting duplicate red items.

The dlc reds are the biggest pain to collect, as they only drop on the dlc maps they belong to and there’s usually only 1-2 maps with full books worth running. What’s worse, vanilla reds can appear just as likely on the dlc maps, so if you want to get serious about collecting all reds, collect all vanilla ones before farming dlcs.

If you only have 1 red missing, all loot tables will have it. If you get 2 red table on cata, both reds will be the same. Once you collect them all, the top slots will have orange items instead. If you have all vanilla reds and miss the dlcs, vanilla maps will have orange items on the top and dlc maps will have the dlc reds only.

With that in mind, if you are in need of more orange tokens and have every red item, salvage at least 1 so that you can get it in the loot table since red weapons can be salvaged for more tokens than an orange can be.

Trait description – melee weapons

On-kill traits – bloodlust, scavenger, berserk

• bloodlust, scavenger, berserk
• work with any attack type
• ideal for low-target, high-damage weapons
• applying poison or fire on enemies and switching to weapon with on-kill trait can make it proc when they die (same with bombs), the only exception is the fire patch on the ground from full conflagration blast
• usually block other on-kill traits or killing blow

On-hit traits – regrowth, swift slaying, killing blow (normal/charged)

• regrowth, swift slaying, killing blow, endurance
• great for fast weapons that hit multiple targets
• limit you to one attack type, which is not always ideal (except endurance)
• poison/fire damage can proc only on the first hit, but not on the subsequent damage ticks

Healing traits:

Bloodlust (Blutdurst)
When killing an enemy, there is a 3.0 – 10.0% chance to recover 10 health.

Regrowth – normal attack (Regeneration – Standardangriff)
When hitting an enemy with a normal attack, there is a 1.0 – 10% chance to recover 5 health.

• 5% max for rapier, 1h axe, dual swords and sword&dagger

Regrowth – charged attack (Regeneration – Aufgeladener Angriff)
When hitting an enemy with a charged attack, there is a 1.0 – 3.0% chance to recover 5 health.

• 10% max for dual daggers (still, single target)
• the percentage and healing delivered is really low, so other healing traits are usually bettet
• shield charged attacks can now proc this on all targets in the bubble, making it comparable to other healing traits

Stamina traits:

Improved pommel (push) (Verbesserter Knauf)
Pushing costs half stamina and there is a 20.0 – 40.0 % chance that the push won’t cost any stamina.

• considering the basic stamina regeneration and free pushes, you can push almost forever
• fantastic synergy with devastating blow
• on dual daggers your pushes cost 1/4 shield

Improved guard (block) (Verbesserte Parierscheibe)
Your blocks cost 50% less stamina and there is 10.0 – 30.0% chance that the block wont cost any stamina.

• fantastic on shields, blocking SV and reviving teammates with a lot of aggro on you
• weapons with fast block-move-speed (elven swords, rapier, etc) can use it to kite much more effectively

Second wind (Langer Atem)
30.0 – 50.0% chance to instantly replenish all stamina if the player’s block is broken

• also reduces stagger when your block is broken, which is great for a lot of bad situations
• if your block is broken and second wind doesn’t proc, keep blocking and each additional hit has a chance to get second wind again

Perfect balance (Perfektes Gleichgewicht)
Adds 2 Stamina (1 Shield) to the weapon’s max Stamina Points and improves stamina regeneration

• +1 shield means more blocking and more pushing, plus the stamina regen makes this very balanced trait (pun intended)
• most effective on dual daggers, glaive and falchion (2 base shields), good on 3 shield weapons, a bit redundant on shields (with 5 shields base stamina)

Endurance (Unermüdlichkeit)
When hitting an enemy, there is a 10.0 – 20.0% chance that the player replenishes stamina.

• works with both attack types
• best on weapons with high targets and enough base stamina (shields, 2h weapons), crap on dual daggers or glaive

Devastating blow (dev blow/DB) (Vernichtender Schlag)
Pushes made with this weapon will be extra powerful.

• Increases the strength of your push against normal rats and makes you able to interrupt stormvermin – very useful when fighting patrols, or stormvermin mixed in hordes
• Shields can do the same without DB; with DB normal rats fly away and get stunned – great crowd control tool, but also potentially very annoying and dangerous

• A list of attacks that interrupt Stormvermin’s overhead attack (devastating blows also upgrades Attacks, not just pushes) from Vermintide

• you can only get one ‘stamina’ trait on a weapon, but dev blow is an exception (endurance+improved guard is not possible, but endurance+dev blow or improved guard+dev blow is)

Offensive traits:

Berserking (Raserei)
When killing an enemy, there is a 5.0 – 12.0% chance to to increase your attack speed by 30.0% for 5.0 seconds and reduce damage taken by 50%.

• great trait for any weapon, but it’s blocked by bloodlust and scavenger, which are often more important
• the sudden boost in attack speed can be more confusing than helpful without a mod showing you temporary effects and their duration

Swift slaying – normal attack (swift) (Schnelles Abschlachten – Standardangriff)
When hitting an enemy with a normal attack, there is a 1.0 – 4.0% chance to increase your attack and movement speed by 30.0% for 5.0 seconds.

• great trait especially for maces, hammers, 2h swords, ex. swords, glaives and picks, but any weapon with 2+ targets on normal attack can benefit
• the movement speed boost can give you more safety, but also kill you if you don’t handle it properly
• the sudden boost in attack and movement speed can be more confusing than helpful without a mod showing you temporary effects and their duration

Swift slaying – charged attack (Schnelles Abschlachten – Aufgeladener Angriff)
When hitting an enemy with a charged attack, there is a 2.0 – 7.0% chance to increase your attack and movement speed by 30.0% for 5.0 seconds.

• same points as for swift normal apply here, but much fewer weapons have charged attacks that benefit properly – shields, longswords or 2h hammers mostly

Killing blow – normal attack (KB) (Todesstoß – Standardangriff)
When hitting a man-sized enemy with a normal attack there is a 5.0 – 15.0% chance to instantly slay it.

• does not apply if target receives 0 damage (most normal attacks on armour, mace/hammer attacks on targets 3+); headshots on armour can still work
• mace, mace&shield, sword&shield and hammer&shield don’t have it in orange version, but do in blue and some red; 1h hammer is an exception
• it actually replaces the weapon damage with 20/20/40

Heroic killing blow – charged attack (HKB) (Heldenhafter Todesstoß)
When hitting an enemy of any size with a charged attack there is a 1.0-3.0% chance to instantly slay it.

• the low proc chance and being tied to charged attacks make it inferior to killing blow, except for shields that can spam

Trait description – ranged weapons

On-kill traits

• bloodlust, scavenger, berserk
• ideal for low-target, high-damage weapons
• applying poison or fire on enemies and switching to weapon with on-kill trait can make it proc when they die (same with bombs), the only exception is the fire patch on the ground from full conflagration blast
• unlike melee weapons, few ranged weapon traits block each other – mostly just those with similar effect (bloodlust/regrowth, berserk/haste)

On-hit traits

• great for fast weapons that hit multiple targets
• poison/fire damage can proc only on the first hit, but not on the subsequent damage ticks

Healing traits:

Bloodlust (Blutdurst)
When killing an enemy, there is a 3.0 – 10.0% chance to recover 10 health.

Regrowth (Regeneration)
When hitting an enemy, there is a 5.0 – 12.0% chance to recover 5.0 health.

• works with any attack type, unlike the melee variants

Ammunition traits:

Scavenger (Wiederverwertung)
When killing an enemy, there is a 10.0 – 24.0% chance to replenish 5% of ammunition for your weapon.

• Returns 1 ammo for weapons with 1-39 max ammo, 2 for 40-59, 3 for 60-79, etc.

Ammunition holder (ammo holder/extra ammo) (Munitionshalter)
Increases the maximum amount of carried ammunition by 30.0%

• can improve scavenger returns if you jump over the next 5% threshold (hagbane, longbow, repeaters)

Extra capacity (clip size/clip capacity) (Größeres Fassungsvermögen)
Increases the amount of ammunition this weapon can hold in a clip by 50.0%

• 100% for grudge raker
• top selection for every weapon where it is available (repeaters, volley, grudge)

Offensive traits:

Hail of Doom (hail/HoD) (Hagel des Verderbens)
Each shot has a 5.0 – 15.0% chance to split into 2 projectiles.

• Original shot consumes one ammo, duplicated shot is free
• duplicated shot is done a few milliseconds later, therefore calculated on new frames, hitting new targets (shotgun rupture issues, etc)
• does not apply to some special shots – shotgun bash, conflag blast, beam/drakefires blast

Skullcracker (skull) (Schädelknacker)
When hitting an enemy, there is 5.0 – 15.0% chance that it will count as an automatic headshot.

• Some weapons have +1 headshot modifiers, others have x2 and more; it’s much more effective on those

Rupture (Durchbohrung)
Projectiles have a 80.0 – 100.0 chance of penetrating two additional targets.

• Gunpowder weapons only
• Many weapons have some default target penetration, this adds +2 to it

Berserking (Raserei)
When killing an enemy, there is a 5.0 – 12.0% chance to to increase your attack speed by 30.0% and not consume ammo/generate heat for 5.0 seconds

• on weapons with clips the ammo is free only if the reload is completed within the effect
• to fully utilize the free ammo, modded effect timers are recommended

Haste (Hast)
When hitting an enemy, there is a 3.0 – 7.0% chance to increase your attack speed by 30.0% and not consume ammo/heat for 5.0 seconds.

• on weapons with clips the ammo is free only if the reload is completed within the effect
• to fully utilize the free ammo, modded effect timers are recommended

Other…

Targeteer (Treffsicherheit)
Decreases the spread of this weapon by 40%.

Mastercrafted – reload speed (MC) (Aus Meisterhand)
Reloading this weapon is 25.0% faster.

• pressing R right after a shot (known as active reload) increases reload speed further; this was removed on handguns

Mastercrafted – attack speed (Aus Meisterhand)
Attack speed is 15% faster

• Usually on bows and staffs
• shares the same icon with MC reload speed, some weapons can even have both so don’t get confused

Inspirational shot (insp shot) (Inspirierender Schuss)
Scoring headshots will replenish the stamina of your allies.

Diversion (distraction) (Ablenkung)
Attacking an enemy that is attacking a Knocked Down ally, will extend the ally’s Knocked Down health

• Great utility for any weapon, but those without reload will benefit the most
• apart from most other traits that marginally improve the abilities of your weapon, this gives it a new, unique function – can often make a difference between saving your dying teammate holding a grimoire, or losing it

Skirmisher (Plänkler)
Movement speed while aiming is increased by 50.0% and hip-fire accuracy doesn’t change while moving

• The effect depends on weapon movement speed,
  Comment from discussion a8bmiles’s comment from discussion "Some Thoughts about the balance changes".

• the hip-fire accuracy allows you to perform otherwise impossible shots with longbow or handgun

Knockback (Rückstoß)
When hitting an enemy, there is a 5.0 – 10.0% chance to knock them back

• the stagger duration is shorter than expected, usually a poor choice

Hawkeye (Adlerauge)
While zooming you can get increased zoom distance using special attack. Improves headshot modifier.

• the improved headshot is great on weapons where it makes a difference between killing stuff in one or two shots (trueflight, longbow) but doesn’t matter if you kill them anyway (handgun, crossbow, except for ogre dps)
• improves headshot both for normal and zoomed shots

Heat-related traits:

Stability (Beständigkeit)
Overcharge generated by this weapon is reduced by 10%.

Channeling rune (Kanalisierungsrune)
Reduce the damage you take from venting by 50.0% and increases venting speed

• with the damage reduction and speed bonus it is more effective to heat and vent a lot, than taking stability; channeling is a great trait on any weapon now

Witch Hunter – Rapier

Strong against / Strengths
Clan rat on nm, ogre, packmaster;
Staggering rats by light attacks, infinite dodge count, high block move speed

Weak against / Weaknesses
High density rats, SV, specials;
Low body shot damage, low horde skill speed, weak push

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack is extremely fast and hits two targets, ideal for on-hit traits; the first two attacks are best for scoring headshots, so learn to block-cancel the rest of the combo and repeat the first two
• charged hits one target for 5, two targets if you charge long enough; use it to engage, kill individual rats, or damage SV
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• the rapier comes with an off-hand pistol with 16 bullets, shoot it with alt-fire (check your keybindings), it benefits nicely from headshots
• killing blow used to be a great choice, but comes only with off-balance; regrowth or swift slaying are best third choices, but extremely difficult to roll
• another problem of killing blow is that normal attacks now deal zero damage to armour (therefore no KB procs); dropping killing blow allows you to take bloodlust, swift slaying and some stamina/dev blow, or stick with regrowth and berserk/scavenger
• the biggest strength of the rapier is mobility, with 90% block move speed and infinite dodge, you can drop that swift strider trinket and still outmaneuver even large hordes
• push strength is very weak, so unless you’re going for killing blow, consider investing into dev blow and your rapier will get you out of any situation
• charged attacks are very fast and it is worth to try HKB on

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth normal 5% + Scavenger + Off balance
Red variant B: Killing blow + Swift slaying normal 4% + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• Regrowth charged + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Off balance)
• Regrowth charged + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Killing blow + Swift slaying normal + Devastating blow

Witch Hunter – 1h Axe

Strong against / Strengths
SV, clan rat on nm, 1-2 rats on cata, ogre, packmaster, gunner

Weak against / Weaknesses
>3 group up rats on cata;
Low horde skill speed, low crowd control

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack deals 6 damage to single normal target, killing all nm rats and cata slaves in one hit, requires headshots to kill cata clan rats with its x1.7 multiplier
• normal attack is a 3 swing combo; the transition from 2nd to 3rd swing is the fastest, while from 3rd to 1st takes very long, so for optimal damage use normal 1-3 and block cancel / quick switch cancel the 3rd swing
• charged attack hits single target and deals 10 normal damage / 7 armored damage, good for killing cata clan rat when you can’t headshot (e.g. when it faces away), but for armored it is at most as effective as normal attacks
• charged attack speed is lower than most other weapons
• plays differently on nm and cata
• not only is the 1h axe unsafe against horde, its damage output in a horde is a lot lower than most 1h weapons with decent headshot rate, because the others do 3-6 damage killing first nm/cata slave rat and hit 2-3 more, and 1h axe usually has to do some blocks and pushes which further reduces damage output
• 3 stamina and very low cc on the attack begs for stamina traits (any of them, based on your playstyle, only endurance performs poorly) and dev blow help a lot
• backstabbery deals double damage if you hit from the back; block ogre’s sweeping hit, let him turn his back and hack away, but
• you don’t need backstab for normal rats and you can kill SV fast enough anyway; getting backstabbery means giving up healing, stamina, or dev blow
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• this is one of the few weapons that comes with a push attack, hold the attack button after pushing to use it; unfortunately it is weaker than the normal attacks (only x1.5 headshot multiplier) unlike the elven weapons; it is considered a normal attack for traits

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Swift slaying charged 7% + Backstab
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Berserk + Backstab

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind + Devastating blow/Backstab
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged/Backstab + Stamina/Devastating blow
• (Red) Bloodlust + Berserk + Backstab

Witch Hunter – 2h Sword

Strong against / Strengths
Medium density rats; great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
SV, high density rats, packmaster, ogre, gunner;
Low single target kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow), low mobility

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits 6 targets, the total damage when you hit all the targets is fantastic; it kills 3 slaves rat on nm on body; cata slave requires 1 headshot and cata clan rat requires 2; this is the faster way to deal with cata clan rats; the second swing has better headshot multipliers on later targets
• attack arcs are diagonal, combine dodges and left / right camera movements to hit more rats
• range of light swings is surprisingly lower than 1h sword’s, try to stay at the edge of the horde instead of embedding into it, otherwise you can get hits from second row of rats; change positions so that not too many rats can get to stab you; against dense horde, try to hit new targets with each swing instead of hitting the same 6 rats to keep you safe
• charged attack hits 6 targets with more damage, stagger and range; 6 slaves on nm will be cleaved in half and it kills the first clan on nm; you can kill cata clan rat with 1 charged + 1 normal, and 3 cata slaves in one swing if you headshot them, but on cata it has lower DPS than normal attack spam
• you can use charged when you come in contact with the horde, but charging move speed is low, dodge in the direction of the swing to get in striking position; when you can hide behind teammates, you can spam charged attacks by dodging back and moving forward to strike
• charged attack staggers SV, you can use it to control single SV while killing the rats on each side of it, but the armor damage is very poor
• you cannot block during 0.4s-0.7s after a normal attack
• time to switch away from this weapon after a normal swing is particularly long, noticeable when you try to do a quick snipe
• Saltzpyre is so tall that the reach is even shorter than Kruber; crouching while swinging increases your reach
• the dodge is better than most 2h weapons, but the block move speed is worse
• push radius is slightly better than standard (2.25 vs 2)
• if the rats are in a line towards you, sometimes it’s better to push them together so you can get a good swing through multiple rats
• normal attack spam works well with regrowth normal, swift slaying normal and killing blow; its killing power in horde also makes bloodlust and berserk procs very often
• swift slaying normal compensates the move slow and makes normal attack dodge dance easier
• killing blow is tied to safety in numbers, it gives a nice damage boost but to fight SV you can only hope it to proc on headshot
• devastating blow and any stamina trait that gives you more pushes help to protect yourself from SVs, to prepare the charged attack, and to push rats into your attack arcs
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push, you can try it with improved pommel / perfect balance
• this is the only melee weapon in Saltzpyre’s armory that has reasonable regrowth normal 10% + scavenger combo, worth using if you want to shoot more; it’s still a viable choice on cata but it this weapon has many weaknesses, offset them with your ranged weapons
• on the red you can get kiiling blow normal + regrowth normal without safety in numbers

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth normal 10% + Swift slaying charged 4% + HKB
Red variant B: Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Swift slaying charged 4%

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+ Safety in numbers)
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Killing blow + Regrowth normal + Swift slaying charged

Witch Hunter – Falchion

Strong against / Strengths
Everything, especially clan rat on cata if you can headshot;
Bonus mobility during light attacks

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low stamina and weak push

Attack and damage pattern

• the 1st, 2nd and 4th normal attacks hit 3 targets, notably doing 4 damage to the first rat with x2.5 headshot multiplier, doing 10 damage on the head, making the falchion very efficient at killing cata clan rats; it’s probably not particularly strong on nm since most weapons can one-headshot nm clan rats, and killing 2 nm slaves on body isn’t too impressive
• the 3rd normal attack is quite slow to execute, hits only one target for 6 damage but only x1.5 headshot multiplier so it can’t kill cata clan rats, so normally it’s better to skip it by block canceling; however it can do 5 damage to armor (7.5 with headshot) if you see fit
• the tap block is more effective here than on other weapons, cancelling the block animation completely
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• With only 2 shields of stamina and a weak push, you have to rely on dodging and striking down rats that directly threaten you, but with enough practice you can fight off even larger groups on cata; stamina traits and dev blow are very helpful, however
• endurance is ok, but notice the weaker effect because of lower total stamina
• Backstab is a nice bonus, but you’re able to kill most rats with a headshot up front and charged headshots are quite effective against stormvermin; you’ll probably end up rarely actually benefiting from backstab, while lacking an other, more useful trait

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Perfect balance + Devastating blow
Red variant B: Regrowth normal 10% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Backstab

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged/Backstab + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal/charged + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal/charged + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Regrowth normal + Swift slaying normal + Backstab

Witch Hunter – Brace of Pistols

Strong against / Strengths
Lined up horde & multiple SVs (w/ rupture + haste and/or scavenger), ogre (w/ haste and headshots), clan rat on nm

Weak against / Weaknesses
Most enemies on cata if not lined up or w/o rupture;
Relatively low total ammo, no armor stagger

Attack and damage pattern

• all shots hit single target and kill nm clan rats and cata slaves in one hit
• normal shot fire rate is the slowest among all non-single shot weapons
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets with rupture
• charged attacks have very solid dps, but you run out of ammo fast
• shots have no pierce at all, so rupture will boost you from 1 to 3 targets per shot, potentially tripling your damage output; a must have trait
• berserk and haste allow you to fire faster and, more importantly, without spending ammo for 5 seconds; berserk will proc more often on hordes, rarely on patrols and never on ogre, unlike haste
• if you want to kill simple rats, scavenger, bloodlust, rupture, berserk might be good
• for killing specials and ogres, try on-hit traits, ammo holder, hail of doom, or skullcracker
• shooting stormvermin from mid-range is fine, but it takes a surprisingly lot of bullets, especially on cata, plus your shots don’t stagger them; very dangerous to try in close range; aim for the head
• targeteer or skullcracker might be very helpful to reliably deliver headshots, but it depends on your aim
• please recommend a good gameplay video

List of traits

Red variant A: Scavenger 24% + Skullcracker + Distraction
Red variant B: Rupture + Haste 7% + Skullcracker

Recommended trait combinations:

• Rupture + Haste + Scavenger/Ammo holder <- overall best
• Rupture + Berserk + Scavenger/Ammo holder <- for hordes

Skullcracker + Targeteer < for special hunting
Hail of Doom + Skullcracker + Haste < for maximum ogre DPS
Ammo holder + Diversion + Rupture/something else < personal favourite

Witch Hunter – Repeater Pistol

Strong against / Strengths
Lined up horde (w/ rupture + scavenger), close SV, packmaster, ogre;
Staggering specials

Weak against / Weaknesses
Distant gunners;
Low special kill speed on cata (can be improved by targeteer), insufficient total ammo

Attack and damage pattern

Charged shot damage is reduced over distance, stated is per one projectile

• normal attack deals 3.5 damage to one normal target and +1 headshot bonus; it does have a high rate of fire, double of that of swift bow
• you can fire full-auto by holding the fire button, but the fire rate is 1/3 of the max fire rate by manual clicking
• recoil camera movement is straight upward, so it’s not hard to control at max fire rate when shooting at stationary targets, but when aiming at moving targets probably one of fire rate or accuracy has to be sacrificed
• charged attack is great against any special in close-mid range, but clip size may be essential on cata to take them down in one shot
• charged attack fires all the remaining shots in the clip in a shotgun pattern; the bullets use a different damage profile from normal shots, higher damage at close range and lower at long range, but the drop off is not as significant as real shotguns; they also penetrate one more target than normal shots
• the charged shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets (so are the normal shots when equipped with rupture)
• there is a 0.1 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual charged attack
• if your field of view is not 65, then the crosshair size doesn’t represent the actual spread; practice in the inn to know the spread
• charged shot can stagger armor in normal state but not SV overhead / shooting ratling; normal shot doesn’t stagger armor and has minimal stagger to trash rats
• total ammo seems high, but you burn through it very quickly, so you want to save it on specials, or buff it with ammo holder
• normal shots can cancel reloading so there is no reason not to reload; if you try to charge while reloading, then there is a trick/exploitable bug that the weapon can be spinning without animation while reloading (listen to the sound to find it out), it helps to get the charged shots ready earlier after reload, but can also mess up your reload
• rupture boosts your normal shot targets from 1 to 3, tripling your damage against lined up targets
• with high ammo pool, scavenger has nice returns, especially with rupture
• targeteer helps with shooting on the move, but it’s not critically necessary
• normal shot headshots are quite decent for ogre DPS, you might want to get closer to shoot at max fire rate without missing

List of traits

Red variant A: Extra capacity 50% + Mastercrafted reload+ Regrowth 5%
Red variant B: Extra capacity 50% + Rupture + Hail of Doom

Recommended trait combinations:

• Extra capacity + Rupture + Targeteer/Scavenger/Ammo holder

Clip capacity + Targeteer < special hunter
Rupture + Ammo/Healing < rat killer
Clip capacity + Diversion + Ammo/Targeteer/Rupture < personal all-round favourite

Witch Hunter – Crossbow

Strong against / Strengths
Ambient SV, up to 5 rats lined up in a row, gunner

Weak against / Weaknesses
Assassin, packmaster on cata, moving targets

Attack and damage pattern

• one bolt can kill 5 rats (10 damage) in one hit, or 8 armor / 35 resistant damage; has potential of dealing a lot of damage in cata, but you have to line up your targets to make most of it
• the bolt doesn’t penetrate armored or resistant targets
• the bolt has practically no ballistic drop although it is a projectile weapon
• all specials on nm and cata require at least 2 bodyshots to kill, and SVs and gunners on cata take 3; a bodyshot and melee finish is a good tactics as well
• the bolt can stagger SV overheads
• x2.5 headshot modifier allows you to one headshot kill SVs and gunners on cata, better ammo efficiency than handgun if you do that often
• moving targets, especially assassins, are difficult to snipe as the bolt has flight time and you need to lead the targets; scoring headshots is even harder, you might consider rapid bodyshots
• normal shots and charged shots deal exactly the same damage; it takes a quarter second to zoom down the sight, the zoomed shot is pin-point accurate if standing still and has minimal spread while moving, but you move at 25% speed; the unzoomed shot is also fairly accurate while standing still and slightly inaccurate on the move
• unlike most other games, crouching usually make the ranged weapons less accurate
• use zoomed shots to aim at the heads or distant targets, but it’s worth to learn shooting from the hip against closer targets as it has better fire rate
• try to shoot those idle SVs before they notice you, wait until they turn the head to make sure their head won’t move; once they are approaching it’s difficult to hit the head
• this weapon is silent, you can snipe rats down in a group one by one and being unnoticed the whole time; one way to progress through the map is to shoot only the rats on the way and sneak pass the oblivious ones
• unique to crossbows: if you are being damaged, the crosshair spread is much larger than other weapons, friendly fire burn or poison damage makes it unable to shoot for 3-5 seconds
• the weapon stat is identical to Bardin’s, but Saltzpyre is taller and more suitable for the sniper job
• mastercrafted enhances every bit of the crossbow’s performance: faster consecutive bodyshots to kill specials and SVs, higher fire rate to kill horde, safer to reload etc.
• scavenger is sweet if you primarily shoot rats and score a lot of kills during hordes, and you can heal a lot with bloodlust
• uniquely, you can roll bloodlust + regrowth, but having an ammo trait instead of regrowth would allow you to spam shots and proc more bloodlust
• hail of doom is also useful for all purposes: bonus shots to dense rats, occasional double bodyshots to kill specials, or lucky headshots from the bonus shot; notice that the bonus shot has medium spread
• ammo holder gives you more ammo for all targets, but it doesn’t increase scavenger return; scavenger can generate more ammo on its own
• skullcracker on crossbow is tied to inspirational shot; it’s better than hail of doom in the sense that its proc can kill SV and gunner on cata
• hawkeye increases ogre headshot damage by 40%, but you don’t need it for other targets
• skirmisher allows you to strafe faster while aiming and removes the spread while moving; it’s not a huge improvement as the crossbow already has acceptable accuracy while moving
• knockback has 40% chance can will occasionally knock down the targets you didn’t kill for follow up shots
• devastating blow on your melee weapon can help to give you space to reload, or push SVs to allow for easy headshot
• if damage boon is on, you can two-bodyshot-kill SVs and gunners on cata and one-bodyshot-kill packmasters on cata

List of traits

Red variant A: Mastercrafted + Bloodlust + Hawkeye
Red variant B: Mastercrafted + Hail of doom + Rupture

This is the only rupture available on any crossbow, but it won’t help you hit more SVs and boosting normal targets from 5 to 7 is an overkill

Recommended trait combinations:

• Mastercrafted + Scavenger + Hail of doom/Bloodlust/Ammo holder
• Mastercrafted + Hail of doom + Ammo holder/Bloodlust
• Mastercrafted + Bloodlust + Regrowth
• Mastercrafted + any reasonable combinations

Witch Hunter – Volley Crossbow

Strong against / Strengths
Ogre, packmaster, close specials;
One of the best ogre-killing weapons

Weak against / Weaknesses
Distant specials;
Super long reload time, low total ammo

Attack and damage pattern

• normal shot hits two targets for 7 normal / 3 armour / 25 resistant damage with x2.5 headshot
• charged shot is 3 normal shots fired at once and spread out horizontally, this attack is famous for its ogre killing potential; 3 bodyshots / 1 headshot + 1 bodyshot kill all normal type specials, but the spread is quite large; you can kill SVs with a charged shot to the head at extreme close range
• killing ratlings can be fast but cost a lot of ammo, best bet is to try multiple normal headshots
• the crosshair size doesn’t represent the actual spread; practice in the inn to know the spread
• charged shots produce no recoil at all (no increased spread and no camera movement), despite the crosshair expanding visually
• the bolt has practically no ballistic drop although it is a projectile weapon
• the bolt doesn’t penetrate armored or resistant targets
• all shots can stagger SV overheads
• “fire rate bug”: the charged shot fire rate is not continuous, you can either fire the next charged shot after 0.5s, or hold the charge button and fire the next shot after 0.8s; clicking shoot button between 0.5-0.8s has no effect
• another related “bug” is that releasing charge button and shooting within 0.5s still produces a charged shot, making ammo preservation harder
• move speed is very low in charged state, but once you start firing at maximum fire rate you can move at 100% speed, useful to maintain distance from the ogre; firing at low fire rate resumes the charged state and move slow applies again
• terribly slow reload (5 seconds), impossible to do once a combat starts, and even if you reload in safe situations it means you are not engaging enemies, so try not to over-reload; on the other hand, you need enough ammo in the clip to kill specials or ogres; try to learn all the ogre trigger points and reload in advance
• reload can be cancelled by normal shots but not charged shots, but canceling means that you give up all the time invested in the reload attempt
• bodyshotting ogre with full clip charged shots does only 375 damage (no ammo holder) to 525 (with ammo holder) without other traits or potions, far from enough to kill nm/cata ogres; DPS during one clip is slightly better than hagbane, but much lower if we count the reload time, and it’s impractical to reload in combat, therefore…
• getting charged headshots during strength potion effect is essential to kill ogres quickly (better at close/melee range), either hold the potion yourself or coordinate with the potion share player; try to keep the aggro of the ogre (see below), so that the ogre is facing you, shoot at the head after dodging the first attack at zero distance so that all 3 bolts (or 6 bolts with hail of doom) hit the head, dodge or switch to melee to block when necessary; if everything goes right the ogre should drop when the clip is almost empty
• because you have to focus on the ogre alone for a few seconds, it’s much harder to do if rats are very close to you, judge the situation to see if you want to do it or just do some damage by shooting at less optimal angle or distance
• aggro management: if no teammate shoots the ogre and you are the closest to the ogre (by moving forward etc.), the ogre should target you; however, it’s not always the case for teammates to refrain from shooting, many weapons e.g. hagbane swiftbow, repeater handgun, trueflight longbow, longbow, swift bow, bolt staff and fireball staff can do serious damage and have a much longer effective range than volley crossbow, and can almost kill the ogre if more than one players are shooting with these weapons
• teammates should be ready to finish off the ogre in case it’s not dead
• while the volley crossbow is often viewed as a specialized ogre killer, it would be a waste to not use for specials when situation requires, the charged shot can often kill a special at medium – close range; it is a quite versatile weapon, but limited by the low total ammo and long reload time
• extra capacity gives you a lot more burst ogre damage from one clip and makes you feel more comfortable after shooting 3-6 bolts without reloading
• mastercrafted reload reduces reload time from 5s to 4s, nice to have on the move but doesn’t help much in a combat scenario
• hail of doom performs normally for normal shots (i.e. bonus shot receives the recoil spread), but it changes the charged shots to be 6 bolts fired at once horizontally, 5 of them centered around the crosshair with the same separation between two adjacent bolts, and the last bolt added on the right, so hail of doom is effective only for close range targets
• skullcracker has greater effect here because of the high headshot multiplier and some bolts from the charged shots often miss the head, can boost ogre damage quite a lot in less optimal situations
• if you reserve one clip (~21 bolts) for the ogre, the other 24 bolts can be used against specials etc., and ammo holder will raise that to 38 bolts; however it doesn’t affect scavenger ammo return
• with scavenger, the ammo efficiency isn’t too bad to be used on slave rat hordes, if you manage to hit 2 rats with every bolt
• targeteer affects only normal shots but not the spread of charged shots, can help to snipe far away specials
• the only safety in numbers available on any ranged weapon, probably meant to be distraction but it does work
• on cata you will need every edge if you want to kill the ogre all by yourself (hail of doom and skullcracker are listed top for that reason), but for nm you can probably make some compromises and put some ammo traits on to turn it into a general-purpose weapon

List of traits

Red variant A: Extra Capacity 40% + Skullcracker + Mastercrafted reload 20%
Red variant B: Extra Capacity 40% + Skullcracker + Hail of Doom

Recommended trait combinations:

• Extra capacity + Hail of Doom + Skullcracker <- for max ogre DPS
• Extra capacity + Mastercrafted reload + Hail of Doom/Skullcracker
• Extra capacity + Scavenger + Ammo holder/Mastercrafted reload

Waywatcher – 1h Sword

Strong against / Strengths
Everything, can be further buffed by killing blow;
Infinite dodge count, high block move speed, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Weak push

Attack and damage pattern

• first two normal attacks hit 4 targets with x2 headshot multiplier and they are among the fastest attacks in the game (about 30% faster than kruber/sienna’s 1h swords) and have long reach, provide very strong crowd control and damage; nm clan rat and cata slave die from 1 headshot
• that said, attack arcs are 45 degrees diagonal so you need to combine dodges and quick left / right camera movements to hit rats on your left and right
• the third normal attack is a stab with x1.75 headshot multiplier, able to kill cata clan rat on the head and seriously injure SV; it also gives you significant movement speed boost, so you can even use it if you kill the last rat with the 2rd normal attack
• against a horde, tap block to cancel the third attack to get better crowd control; given enough space to maneuver and spread out the density, normal attacks spam and dodge dance are more than sufficient to handle a horde, not even block or push is needed
• normal 1 + block cancel offers much more block active time, safer to use when you have low health
• after normal 1 or 2, takes a much longer wait to automatically reset to normal 1, while block/push reset is instant; you can make use of it can make normal 2 or 3 your next attack
• charged attack hits single target for 10 damage, killing cata clan rat on body, and comes also with x1.5 headshot multiplier, making it stronger than similar attacks from other weapons against SV
• charging move speed is also much higher than that of other 10 damage charged attacks
• if you attack right after pushing, you will start from the 2nd normal attack; it doesn’t affect the weapon’s performance but might need some getting used to; it can also be advantageous because you can use the 3rd normal attack more readily against SVs
• facing SVs, alternative to charged attacks, you can do the combo push + light 2+3 which does comparable damage with headshots and gives you 2 chances to proc killing blow and other on hit traits
• this weapon has the top block move speed, top push move speed, top dodge speed and infinite dodge count, making you very easy to get out of tricky situations; however, push strength is weaker than average, rats won’t be pushed back as much
• regrowth normal is the best healing trait here; bloodlust is also viable with its kill speed and the charged attack, but more so on nm; bloodlust can have extra effect if it procs from hagbane poison kill
• killing blow further improves the horde kill speed, and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers
• scavenger benefits nicely from horde kill speed, and supply ammo to elf’s strong ranged weapons
• uniquely, the killing blow + regrowth normal combo is not tied to one, but 11 other traits, making it much easier to roll, and you can have scavenger or stamina as the third trait
• swift slaying blocks regrowth normal, and berserk blocks scavenger; they are good by themselves but probably outshadowed by killing blow + regrowth normal
• when swift slaying is on, it might be more efficient to do normal attack spam instead of normal 1+2 + block cancel
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• devastating blow improves push strength and let you push SV overheads; it’s not very necessary for the user as dodge is always available, but it can be helpful for the teammates
• beware that heroic killing blow is not available on this weapon
• among all elf’s melee weapons, only this one offers scavenger together with strong healing, pick it if you want to use the bow more
• the red version has killing blow + bloodlust + scavenger which works very well with hagbane, although you can roll killing blow + regrowth normal + scavenger which on cata should provide more heal on its own

List of traits

Red variant A: Killing blow + Regrowth charged 10% + Scavenger
Red variant B: Killing blow + Bloodlust + Scavenger

Recommended trait combinations:

• Killing blow + Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• (Red) Killing blow + Bloodlust + Scavenger

Waywatcher – Dual Swords

Strong against / Strengths
Everything;
Infinite dodge count, bonus mobility during light attacks

Weak against / Weaknesses
Weak push; relatively low specials kill speed, when compared to other elf’s melee weapons

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack combo consists of 4 swings, all hit 4 targets with x2 headshot multiplier and have long reach, nm clan rat and cata slave die from 1 headshot
• despite hitting 4 targets, the attack speed is slower than that of the elven 1h swords, 3rd and 4th attacks are particularly slow and you might want to block cancel them
• the attack arcs are flatter than that of elven 1h sword, so you don’t need exaggerated camera movements to hit multiple rats, but it should make no difference after enough practice
• all normal attacks have move speed boost for the first half of the swings, and moderate move slow in the second half; if you want higher move speed in dodge dance, dodge during the second half
• given enough space to maneuver and spread out the density, normal attacks spam and dodge dance are more than sufficient to handle a horde, not even block or push is needed
• charged attack deals 6 normal damage and 5 armor damage to first target with x2 headshot multiplier, killing nm clan rat on body, cata clan rat on headshot and causing an astounding 10 damage to SVs; beware that it doesn’t stagger first armor target
• charging move speed is slowest among elven 1h weapons, turn and dodge into position if you need to
• for the charged attacks, only the right hand weapon deals damage and the left hand weapon is fake (try hitting things in the inn)
• charged attacks are weak against packmasters and ogres, use normal attacks instead
• this is one of the few weapons that comes with a push stab, hold the attack button after pushing to use it; it hits single target, deals 6 normal damage and 3.5 armor damage with 2.5x headshot multiplier, another very effective anti-armor attack; it is considered a normal attack for traits
• pushing + push stab also gives you incredible move speed, however beware that it can leave you open and the follow up input actions are kind of messed up
• this weapon has the top push move speed, top dodge speed and infinite dodge count, making you very easy to get out of tricky situations; however, push strength is weaker than average, rats won’t be pushed back as much
• regrowth normal is only 5%, so bloodlust is probably better even on cata
• regrowth charged is pretty much a dead trait, only 3% but charged attack hits only 2 targets
• killing blow further improves the horde kill speed, and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers (can be used to get lucky procs on SV headshot too, and the 3rd swing procs on body); unfortunately it blocks bloodlust and is tied to safety in numbers
• scavenger benefits nicely from horde kill speed
• swift slaying normal / swift slaying charged / berserk are useful as usual, and in addition the normal attack spam will gives you higher move speed because the second half of the swings are cancelled faster
• when swift slaying is on, normal 1+2 + block cancel should still be smoother than normal attack spam because normal 3 and 4 are too slow
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push, you can try it with improved pommel / perfect balance
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserves a special mention
• improved pommel in addition allows more push attacks
• devastating blow improves push strength and let you push SV overheads; it’s not very necessary for the user as dodge is always available, but it can be helpful for the teammates; it might push the rat too far and make you miss the push stab
• overall, compared to elven 1h sword, here the lack of regrowth normal 10% restricts the trait combo but you gain stronger melee anti-armor ability; slower attack speed means it has lower horde DPS but you gain mobility to compensate
• the red variant has the swift slaying 7% which is higher than the orange version; it is probably the best trait for damage boost, and the faster attacks provide better crowd control so it’s ok without stamina trait
• Comment from discussion Grimalackt’s comment from discussion "Can we talk about Bloodlust vs killing blow on melee weapons at high level?".

• True Solo Cataclysm : Chain of Fire (1 tome) from Vermintide

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Scavenger
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7%+ Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Safety in numbers)
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7% + Devastating blow

Waywatcher – Sword and Dagger

Strong against / Strengths
Everything, especially the red version;
Infinite dodge count, bonus mobility during light attacks

Weak against / Weaknesses
Weak push

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack combo consists of 4 swings, hitting 2-3-1-1 targets respectively; attack speed is among the fastest, especially the first 2 attacks
• first attack has x3 headshot multiplier for the first target, reducing the time to kill cata clan rats; last two attacks can one-headshot them as well; attack arcs are quite horizontal and it’s possible to get multiple headshots each swing
• the third and fourth normal attacks deal 1 damage to armor, good for proc-ing killing blow
• all normal attacks have move speed boost for the first half of the swings, but noticeable move slow in the second half, although the next attack in the chain can cancel a portion of the move slow; if you want to maintain move speed in dodge dance, dodge during the second half; blocking is also effective because block move speed is faster than the move slow, especially after normal 4
• another point to note is the extremely short delay between the key press and the actual swing, which makes it safer when trying to hit the rats before they hit you, or attack after blocking, etc.
• when fighting a horde, tap block to cancel the third and fourth swings to get better crowd control, and try to keep a slight distance from the horde (e.g. dodge diagonally backward) so that only 2-3 rats approach you; given enough space to maneuver and spread out the density, you can deal with hordes with only dodge dance and a few pushes
• first normal attack first target receives double stagger duration
• charged attack combo consists of 2 attacks:
• the first charged attack deals 6 normal damage and 5 armor damage to first target with x2 headshot multiplier, killing nm clan rat on body, cata clan rat on headshot and causing an astounding 10 damage to SVs; beware that it doesn’t stagger first armor target
• the second charged attack deals 10 normal damage to single target, but only 4.5 armor damage without headshot multiplier, good for following up on cata clan rats but not SVs; being a downward stab it also has shorter reach
• best way to kill SVs is to use first charged attacks two times, block canceling in between
• 1st charged attack is weak against packmasters and ogres, use normal attacks for them or the 2nd charged attack for packmasters
• for the charged attacks, only the right hand weapon deals damage and the left hand weapon is fake (try hitting things in the inn)
• this is one of the few weapons that comes with a push stab, hold the attack button after pushing to use it; it hits single target, deals 6 normal damage and 3.5 armor damage with 2.5x headshot multiplier, another very effective anti-armor attack; it is considered a normal attack for traits
• pushing + push stab also gives you incredible move speed, however beware that it can leave you open and the follow up input actions are kind of messed up
• this weapon has the top push move speed, top dodge speed and infinite dodge count, making you very easy to get out of tricky situations; however, it has the weakest push strength along with dual daggers, rats won’t be pushed back as much
• regrowth normal is only 5%, so bloodlust is probably better even on cata
• regrowth charged is 10%, and the charged attacks are quite fast and can hit 2 targets, so it’s usable if you can’t reroll better traits
• killing blow further improves the horde kill speed, and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers (can be used to get lucky procs on SV headshot too, and the 3rd swing procs on body); unfortunately it blocks bloodlust and is tied to off balance (not so useful without improved guard / second wind)
• scavenger benefits nicely from horde kill speed, but it blocks bloodlust
• swift slaying normal / swift slaying charged / berserk are useful as usual, and in addition the normal attack spam will gives you higher move speed because the second half of the swings are cancelled faster
• when swift slaying is on, it might be more efficient to do normal attack spam instead of normal 1+2 + block cancel
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• improved pommel in addition allows more push attacks
• devastating blow improves push strength and let you push SV overheads; it’s not very necessary for the user as dodge is always available, but it can be helpful for the teammates; it might push the rat too far and make you miss the push stab
• heroic killing blow is worth trying as because of the above average charged attack speed
• overall, compared to elven 1h sword, here the lack of regrowth normal 10% restricts the trait combo on orange tier but you gain stronger melee anti-armor ability; higher attack speed also let you kill individual rats faster
• the red variant has the killing blow + regrowth normal 10% combo, higher percentage for regrowth and comes with improved guard

List of traits

Red variant A: Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Off balance
Red variant B: Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Improved guard

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• Regrowth normal/charged + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Off balance)
• Regrowth normal/charged + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Improved guard

Waywatcher – Dual Daggers

Strong against / Strengths
1-3 clan rats on cata, packmaster, ogre;
Infinite dodge count, bonus mobility during light attacks, high block move speed, half stamina push

Weak against / Weaknesses
>4 grouped up rats, low stamina and weak push, attacks have low crowd control, specials mixed in rats – pair with hagbane for crowd control, or avoid dense rats

Attack and damage pattern

• extremely fast single target normal attacks with 3x headshot multiplier, able to one-headshot cata clan rats, or quickly finish them with 3 body hits in case of missing (in terms of combat on nm, it has no real advantage over other elven 1h weapons because the headshot damage is overkill and it lacks crowd control)
• the transition from 1st to 2nd swing is slower than the others, encourages you to use the whole combo
• attack reach is significantly shorter than any other melee weapons; you might miss the rat if you dodge dance as usual, try to turn your camera so you dodge in a curve instead of a straight line away from your target
• stagger duration is as short as 1h swords
• the delay between the key press and the actual swing is shorter, making it safer when trying to hit the rats before they hit you, or attack after blocking, etc.; here it has limited use because of the single target attacks
• getting headshots is crucial, so here are a few tips: (1) if the rat was not attacking, it is easier to land headshots with the left hand swings, so you can use the 1st swing in the air (which gives you bonus move speed) while approaching and use the 2nd swing to hit it, (2) the arc of the right hand swing will usually hit the arm or body if used statically; try dodging left and turning camera right, at that angle the rat’s head protrudes to the right; (3) after a rat standing attack, its head is positioned on the right side so right hand swings will get the headshots
• the lower combat performance is backed-up by the mobility: normal attack spam grants you ~10% bonus move speed
• to be more precise, all normal attacks have move speed boost for the first half of the swings, and slight move slow in the second half; attacking/dodging/blocking during the second half can reduce the move slow
• charged attack is rather fast and hits single target for 10 damage, killing cata clan rat on body, has x2.5 headshot multiplier for damaging SVs, but it takes the same amount of hits as that of sword dagger / dual swords to kill SVs
• for the charged attack, only the right hand weapon deals damage and the left hand weapon is fake (try hitting things in the inn)
• attack reach is probably shorter than that of normal attacks, and at that range the SVs tend to push you away before you can hit it
• charging move speed is slower than that of elven 1h sword, turn and dodge into position if you need to
• one normal attack headshot can kill a packmaster instantly, but beware of hitting a stray rat instead; both attacks are pretty good for ogres with headshots
• uniquely, push only costs 0.5 stamina (same as basic block cost)
• you can use the push stab by holding the attack button after pushing; it hits single target, deals 6 normal damage and 3.5 armor damage with 1.75x headshot multiplier; considered as a normal attack for traits; more spammable but weaker than the push stabs of sword dagger / dual swords (lower headshot multiplier) and attack reach is shorter
• pushing + push stab gives you increased move speed; beware that it can leave you open and the follow up input actions are messed up, e.g. you can’t do charged attack right after a push stab; normal attack spam should be safer to achieve similar mobility
• this weapon has the top block move speed, top dodge speed and infinite dodge count; however, it has only 2 stamina and the weakest push strength along with sword dagger, so survival relies on mobility and avoidance of rats; push move speed is slower as well, probably balanced for the stamina cost
• dual daggers excel at killing small number of ambient rats, but if you really have to fight horde, try to hit new targets with every swing to stagger more enemies to keep you safe, mix in some pushes whenever you feel there are too many rats around you (beware that rat attack is longer than push radius), also try to bait rat standing attacks by moving towards them and dodge once they are locked in animation
• it’s a good idea pairing dual daggers with swift bow or hagbane; swift bow can thin out the horde and hagbane can kill or at least stagger rats for melee, however ammo can be a problem as there is no good trait combo with scavenger on dual daggers, so the bows better have some ammo traits
• regrowth normal 5% on single target attacks is very weak, get bloodlust instead; regrowth charged is ok but forces you to use the slow charged attack
• with only single target attacks, 2 stamina and the weakest push possible, hordes are your biggest problem; invest in stamina
• second wind procs more from the low stamina and synergizes well with the kiting ability
• perfect balance gives +50% stamina (2 more pushes) and faster regen (also in dodge dance), but doesn’t avoid guard break from SV overhead
• free pushes from improved pommel don’t stop stamina regen (if not dodging), giving you effectively ~20 pushes on average
• devastating blow along with perfect balance / improved pommel should give you the needed crowd control in horde situation
• endurance and improved guard probably don’t work so well because low stamina
• killing blow is not as strong as it is on other weapons that cleaves multiple rats, but it still helps the low bodyshot damage a lot; note that it blocks bloodlust and is tied to backstab
• scavenger doesn’t suffer from low proc percentage and you can get ammo from ambient kills, you can put healing on the bow
• swift slaying and berserk both allow you to get higher move speed buffs from normal spam
• backstab helps with the ogre when it targets somebody else, but frontal headshots are more damaging for all targets and trying to the reach the back of other rats is a risk by itself
• heroic killing blow might be interesting for last stand, as the charged attack is relatively fast

List of traits

Red variant A: Perfect balance + Devastating blow + Backstab
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Endurance + Backstab

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust/Scavenger + Perfect balance/Improved pommel/Second wind + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Scavenger + Perfect balance/Improved pommel/Second wind + Swift slaying normal/Swift slaying charged/Backstab

Waywatcher – Glaive

Strong against / Strengths
Clan rat on nm and cata, medium density rats, SV, gasrat, assassin, gunner;
Very long stagger duration (for cata), good mobility during light attacks

Weak against / Weaknesses
High density rats, packmaster, ogre;
Low stamina, below average horde kill speed

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits 2 targets for 6/4 damage with x2 headshot multiplier, aim for the head to kill cata clan rats; you can dodge left and turn the camera right so the 2nd target appears higher on the screen
• unlike most weapons, here you can’t block once the normal attack started, until 0.5s later
• normal attack 1 + block cancel is faster than consecutive normal attacks, and using this means you always attack from right to left, so adjust position accordingly; the only exception to this is when you hit the bodies of 2 cata clan rats, using normal 2 will finish them off in one hit because the rat on the left has 6 hp; still it is safer to do normal 1 block cancel
• normal attack 1 + quick switch cancel is even faster but requires more button taps
• on the other hand, normal 2 is arguably better for headshotting single clan rat
• headshotting the 2nd target seems to provide the best damage output, and solves the problem of headshotting 1st target means missing 2nd target
• on nm this weapon is a heavy hacker; on cata you will notice the heavy stagger is very helpful, stagger duration is among the longest of all weapons’ normal attacks
• normal attacks stagger SV but not the overhead unless you have devastating blow as host
• as usual with low target attacks, you want to hit new targets to keep you safe, but in the case of the glaive the knockback is so huge you probably don’t need to move to achieve that
• you get some move speed bonus in the middle of the normal attack swings, so it’s easier to “joust”[vermintide.fandom.com] and some mobility to attack while on the move or retreating
• by turning the camera and/or dodge, you can hit 2 targets that are extremely far apart
• charged attack consists of a 2-swing combo; execute 2nd charged by tapping attack after 1st charged; each hits a single target, first swing has the same damage as a normal attack, which leads to the devastating overhead attack which kills all normal type enemies on cata (20 damage) and almost kills a cata SV (16 damage), you can aim for the head or finish with a normal attack
• charged 1 knocks the target back a bit, so keep going forward to hit the SV with charged 2, or swing the first in the air and land a headshot with the second one
• charging is perhaps too slow when rats are already in melee range, fall back to charge and move forward as you swing, works well with the mechanics above
• both charged 1 and 2 can interrupt SV overhead
• charged combo is also very good for breaking pillars and chains
• normal attack headshots are only slightly slower to kill SVs, if you don’t have the space to use charged attack
• all attacks have slow DPS against ogres and packmasters, at best try normal headshots, or just use your bow
• block / push move speed and dodges are better than all 2h weapons, close to the lower end of 1h weapons
• push ability is same as most 1h weapons but consecutive push is slower than standard
• only 2 stamina and the better mobility and stagger provided by the normal attack seem to reward using the attacks to control rats rather than using push or block to defend, that said a stamina + devastating blow combo is sufficiently defensive
• bloodlust heals the best on both nm and cata, but regrowth normal is not too far off on cata as it can proc from body hits, intentional or not
• swift slaying normal speeds up the normal attacks to kill or control, gives you movement speed to keep you out of danger (you get more move speed bonus from consecutive normal attacks), easier jousting from faster backward speed, and reduces the charging time as well
• berserk has similar effects and can have higher up-time depending on your headshot rate
• scavenger works quite well as you can often get the kills before your teammates
• second wind procs more because of low stamina
• perfect balance gives you +50% stamina and faster regen (can regen in dodge dance), but doesn’t avoid guard break from SV overhead
• endurance and improved guard probably don’t work so well because low stamina
• killing blow has some effect, most notable on SVs, but blocks bloodlust and is tied to off balance, which is harder to use as you can’t block as much compared to other weapons
• the red glaive has two perfect trait sets, bloodlust + scavenger + berserk is all on-kill traits that trigger from hagbane poison kills

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Swift slaying 7% + Perfect balance
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Berserk + Scavenger

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• (Red) Bloodlust + Berserk + Scavenger

Waywatcher – Trueflight Longbow

Strong against / Strengths
Specials, ogre, SV, moving targets, targets behind obstacles

Weak against / Weaknesses
SV and gunner on cata require 2 arrows;
Low total ammo – proper ammo management is crucial, or use melee scavenger

Attack and damage pattern

• all attacks home towards targets close to the mouse cursor, targeting body by default, head if the target is highlighted in red
• charged attacks are a great way to take out specials, rate of fire is good enough to deal with those you don’t kill in one shot
• with the enemy locked on, move the cursor away from him just before shooting to curve the shot behind obstacles (or allies)
• after one successful charged headshot, the bow ‘remembers’ the last target and subsequent light shots will auto-headshot the same target; normal shots are weaker and with worse headshot mod, but faster, so it’s a good way to quickly finish off a special you didn’t kill with the first arrow, sack rat, or ogre dps
• 20 arrows (26 with ammo holder) means that you can’t afford to waste shots on basic rats, unless you have scavenger or ammo box nearby; your role is to kill specials, not every rat within melee reach of your team
• you’re most likely going to kill what you hit, so on-hit traits are less desirable
• hawkeye improves your headshot bonus, which lets you oneshot some specials on nightmare and cata (you’ll need hawkeye+damage boon to 1shot SV on cata)
• scavenger returns only one arrow per proc; you could make it work with haste/berserk, but you’re safer with ammo holder + whatever and scavenger on melee
• Comment from discussion dieaready’s comment from discussion "Tip’s for the Trueflight bow.".

List of traits

Red variant A: Ammo holder + Mastercrafted + Hail of doom
Red variant B: Scavenger 20% + Haste 12% + Hail of doom

Recommended trait combinations:

• Hawkeye + Mastercrafted + Ammo holder/Hail of doom/Skirmisher/Bloodlust/Regrowth
• Scavenger + Haste + Hawkeye/Hail of doom
• Hawkeye + Haste + Hail of doom <- for Krench

Hawkeye + Ammo holder + HoD/bloodlust
Hawkeye + Scavenger + Haste/Berserk

Waywatcher – Longbow

Strong against / Strengths
Ambient SV, ogre, gunner, ambient clan rat on cata, lined up rats;
Decent ammo pool

Weak against / Weaknesses
Assassin, moving targets;
Armor requires headshot

Attack and damage pattern

• normal shot is fine for clearing ambient rats on nightmare or taking down gas/assassin/packmaster in a hurry, but you’ll probably use charged most of the time
• charged shot can kill 3 rats lined up and with 4x headshot kills most specials (like a weaker, faster crossbow)
• hawkeye (or damage boon) is necessary to kill some specials and SV on cata
• with good aim you should be able to kill almost everything you would with trueflight, plus be much more effective during hordes and with better ammo pool; with poor aim you’re better off taking a swiftbow
• triple kills are great for bloodlust and scavenger, with haste/berserk you’ll be able to delete most of the horde yourself
• scavenger gives you 2 arrows per proc, 3 with ammo holder, also nice synergy with haste/berserk
• bloodlust+scavenger+berserk is a valid combo, but hawkeye+HoD+skullcracker is strangely not
• skirmisher stabilises your aim while moving, letting you pull off more difficult shots
• mastercrafted improves the charged draw speed as well, worth a try

List of traits

Red variant A: Mastercrafted + Hail of Doom + Bloodlust
Red variant B: Mastercrafted + Hail of Doom + Skullcracker

Recommended trait combinations:

• Hawkeye + Mastercrafted + Skirmisher/Ammo holder

Hawkeye + Bloodlust + scavenger/ammo holder
Hawkeye + scavenger + ammo/haste/berserk
Hawkeye + ammo/scav/bloodlust + HoD/skullcracker

Waywatcher – Swiftbow

Strong against / Strengths
Normal rats, gasrat, packmaster, assassin, ogre;
Quickly clearing areas, large ammo pool

Weak against / Weaknesses
SV, gunner, approaching spread out rats;
Armor requires multiple headshots, no armor stagger, normal shots fire rate limited by recoil

Attack and damage pattern

• normal shots have extremely fast fire rate, dealing 6 damage to a single target
• fire rate seems to depend on game FPS and it’s 0.2 second + 1 frame per shot, this can result in variable fire rate if FPS is not stable
• charged attacks pierce additional target, deal some damage to armor and have x2 headshot multiplier
• your ogre dps is half of hagbane, but spamming normal shots can still be quite effective; if you go for headshots, normal shots are still better than charged
• with the massive base ammo, scavenger returns 5-6 arrows per proc, which makes you practically never run out (except for ogre maybe), but if you want to go full machine gun, take haste as well
• the amount of kills you can pull off during hordes is so good, that with bloodlust on the bow you can drop healing on melee weapons for something else
• stormvermin and ratlings are a serious problem, so take melee that can deal with SV and make sure your team can handle gunners
• against other specials you’re fine to go, just spam arrows till they drop
• hawkeye can help you snipe SVs and gunners, they drop in 2-3 charged headshots on nm/cata; note that hawkeye doesn’t affect normal attack ogre / packmaster headshot damage

List of traits

Red variant A: Scavenger 24% + Knockback 10% + Inspirational shot
Red variant B: Ammo holder + Scavenger 24% + Haste 5%

Recommended trait combinations:

• Scavenger + Hawkeye + Hail of doom

Bloodlust + Scavenger + Haste/berserk
Haste + Knockback + ammo/scavenger/healing

Waywatcher – Hagbane Swiftbow

Strong against / Strengths
Ogre, horde, packmaster, assassin;
Good crowd control, staggering specials and eventually killing them by poison, second best ogre-killing weapon

Weak against / Weaknesses
Mass SVs, specials takes a few seconds to die;
No armor stagger, low total ammo without ammo traits

Attack and damage pattern

X direct damage is applied on impact on one target and Y poison cloud damage applied to it over 3 seconds, plus Z poison damage applied over 3 seconds to every target in the initial impact area of 1m (normal) or 2m (charged), for a total of (X+Y)+Z damage (as in the table)

• normal attack is a very fast way to take down the ogre, the poison stacks; take hail of doom, mastercrafted, or haste to maximize your ogre slaying potential
• poison vs. armor logic: poison cloud damage is never applied to them; arrow poison is applied only when armor is penetrated (i.e. direct damage is done), so arrow poison is applied when (1) charged shot hits directly, (2) normal shot hits the head because +1 direct damage, (3) normal shot hits the body when strength potion / off balance debuff is active (there can be more cases)
• charged attack is great against groups of rats and decent against specials as well; aim for the ground at the centre of the group for maximum effect
• the poison effect is applied only on impact, so don’t expect rats that walk over the little cloud to get poisoned as well
• diversion can proc on many rats attacking your friends, the health you give them is much more than the FF they take from your attacks
• scavenger gives you 1 arrow per proc, 2 with ammo holder; ammo is therefore the first trait to look for, you can get scav on melee
• to get procs from scav on the bow, you need to have it in your hand when the rats die; easy if the horde is far, difficult in close range
• perhaps the most efficient combo is ammo holder and regrowth on the bow, then swap to your melee weapon with bloodlust/scavenger
• haste gives you 5 seconds of unlimited ammo, great against ogre and in combination with scavenger
• notice the great mobility, infinite dodge with good distance
• poison flask can be triggered by the poison cloud and helps to deliver damage to mass SVs, but it’s not that much to be relied on

List of traits

Red variant A: Ammo holder + Hail of doom + Distraction
Red variant B: Ammo holder + Scavenger 24% + Bloodlust

Recommended trait combinations:

• Scavenger + Haste + Ammo holder <- best
• Ammo holder +

Dwarf Ranger – 1h Hammer

Strong against / Strengths
Horde of any size, 1-2 clan rats on cata;
Very good crowd control, great heal w/ regrowth, no dodge cooldown

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low horde kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow)

Attack and damage pattern

• first three normal attack hits infinite amount of rats, two swings are almost horizontal and the third is upward diagonal; x2 headshot multiplier applies only to the first target of normal 1+2, you can kill nm clan rat or cata slave with it
• the fourth single-target attack has white weapon level damage; the third swing gives you some move speed, but no other benefits neither; better skip them by block or push cancel
• the attack speed is 20% faster than Kruber’s 1h mace, but slightly shorter reach; Bardin’s height makes him closer to the rats so it is not so noticeable
• charged attack hits one target vertically, kills cata clan rat in one hit and solid damage against armor, ogre and packmaster as well; this is the fastest among all the single target 10-damage charged attacks of all melee weapons, but the range is a bit short
• charged attack following a normal attack is extremely fast, you can stagger a rat with normal swing first for extra safety
• you can deal with any number, any density and any formation of normal rats (not being surrounded, of course) using the normal attacks alone and dodge dance; no need for block or push
• normal swing stop when it hits armor or resistant target, it can stagger the SV but be ware of the rats on the other side of it; if you want to control the horde, better keep your distance so the swings don’t come in contact with armor
• normal attack reach is better than the push radius
• this weapon is among those whose block move speed equals push move speed
• Bardin’s 1h melee weapons have shorter dodge distance than all other 1h weapons, but no dodge cooldown; as a result, chain dodging gives you >30% move speed, the fastest mode of movement (need trinket for infinite dodge, or you need to dodge jump to reset) excluding swift slaying and speed potion, and you can outrun all melee enemy units; it has a lot of high level uses which won’t be listed here
• regrowth normal is clearly marvelous with normal 1+2 spam; bloodlust can work on nm, or if you kill a lot of ambient clan rats with charged attack on cata
• killing blow only works if you deal damage to the target, it can proc on headshot on 3rd to infinite targets and the first two normal attacks are close to horizontal to make it procs more often; for SV you can smack its head until it procs
• charged attack is useful enough for charged traits to have a place, but you will need to adjust your play style for them
• berserk works well with charged attack, which can be initiated when you get in contact with a horde
• scavenger can be combined with regrowth normal and works best with charged attack on ambients; good for supplying ammo to your grudge-raker
• devastating blow and stamina traits that assist push let you fulfill the crowd control role better
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, and it’s even more ridiculously strong given Bardin’s dodges
• heoric killing blow is more interesting because of the fast charged attack, but the range is low so it requires better dodge skill from the user; aim at ogre’s head for better damage and reach
• poison flask can buff your damage a lot while you control rats by normal attacks
• the red hammer has killing blow + regrowth normal + devastating blow, which can be more useful than off balance on orange

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth normal 10% + Swift charged 7% + Devastating blow
Red variant B: Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Off balance)
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• (Red) Killing blow + Regrowth normal + Devastating blow

Dwarf Ranger – 1h Axe

Strong against / Strengths
SV, clan rat on nm, 1-2 rats on cata, ogre, packmaster, gunner;
No dodge cooldown

Weak against / Weaknesses
>3 group up rats on cata;
Low horde skill speed, low crowd control

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack deals 6 damage to single target, killing rats in one hit (with headshot on cata)
• charged attack deals 10 damage to single target, 2 headshots will kill a cata SV
• on-kill traits are obviously fantastic, while on-hit should be avoided
• 3 stamina and very low cc on the attack begs for stamina traits (any of them, based on your playstyle, only endurance performs poorly) and dev blow help a lot
• instead of WH’s backstab, this axe has off-balance which is… you can get much better stuff
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• Bloodlust works fantastic here, but if you have enough healing from drakefires you could go for scavenger or berserk instead

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Swift slaying charged 7% + HKB
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Berserk + Scavenger

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• (Red) Bloodlust + Berserk + Scavenger
• (Red) Bloodlust + Swift slaying charged + HKB <- for last stand probably

Dwarf Ranger – 2h Hammer

Strong against / Strengths
Horde of any size, SV, packmaster;
Good crowd control and stagger, larger push radius

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low horde kill speed, low mobility, crowd control requires charge up time

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack deals 9 damage to single target with +1 headshot bonus, killing cata clan rats on headshot but takes you double time to kill if you miss the head; it can stagger SV overhead and kill it in 2-3 hits
• normal attacks alone are very slow and there is a lot of wasted idle time after the attack is landed, during which you are vulnerable and suffer from significant move slow; either do (1) block cancel or (2) quick switch cancel after an attack to gain some benefits
• the two inputs above also make normal attacks faster, (1) is safer but you will receive the block move slow, and there is a rather huge gap between the hit and the block; (2) doesn’t put you in block state, but makes your attacks even faster and let you move faster to approach the next target (optimal input gives you near 100% move speed)
• you cannot block during 0.3s-0.7s of a normal attack, which can be problematic as the attack only hits a single target and both your block and attack might be too slow to deal with another rat attacking you, and you can only dodge; for this reason it is safer to use charged attack against >2 rats unless you are sure the other rats won’t catch the opening
• normal attack kills packmaster with one headshot
• charged attack hits infinite targets, dealing 5/3.5 damage to only the first two rats, below average horde damage but still better than pushes or shield bashes; note that it stops when it hits an armored / resistant target
• charged attack is characterized by its knockback and long stagger duration for crowd control, but beware that the stagger strength is lowered for the 3rd target and up, specifically those hits don’t stagger SV overhead; low attack frequency often suffers from stagger overwrite: attacks from teammates can overwrite your stagger by a weaker one
• the main advantage of the charged attacks (over 1h hammer / mace) is that it inflicts huge knockback to SVs, combined with dodges to control the direction, you can knock the SV to the backline of the horde and provide time for you and the teammates to deal with normal rats; 2h hammer also has longer reach than 1h hammer / mace
• move the camera and/or dodge in the direction of the swing to hit and stagger more rats; also try to aim at head level as every headshot deals +1 bonus damage, on nm headshot kills the first clan rat
• try not to spread out the rats when you knock them around, as it is harder for teammates to defend from them; e.g. when swinging from right to left, make sure to start from hitting the right-most rat so all rats are knocked to the left, concentrated and a smaller angle to defend; e.g. if you are on the right edge and the next swing is left to right, dodge and turn your camera left so rats are knocked backward
• normal attack follow up is very fast after a charged attack, mixing them in the attack flow would improve the damage output as that of charged attacks alone is quite low; but beware of the opening from normal attack
• charged attack grants you moderate move speed boost, making it easier to “joust”[vermintide.fandom.com] with compared to great axe/2h swords as you can get back to the original position; combined with dodging to cancel charging move slow will give you >100% move speed, pretty rare on a two-handed weapon
• the only crowd control attack requires charging means that you often need to hide behind teammates or initiate with a push to start charging up
• unique to 1h/2h hammers and mace, the push begins faster after the block; for 2h hammer it can compensate for the slow attacks as a panic button
• another feature of the 2h hammer is the larger push radius which is identical to the shields (2.5 vs standard 2), utilizing pushes is probably a safer way to do crowd control
• compared to charged attacks for crown control, push keeps you in block state and has effect in all directions, while the downside is stamina cost and the lack of damage
• with the aid of some stamina traits, you can quickly repeat push + normal attack to rush kill SV in a horde safely
• dodge is very poor, dodge trinket solves the low dodge count but not the dodge distance and dodge speed
• hitting corpses with normal attack doesn’t consume the target, but animation stops and the hammer might not hit the living target behind
• bloodlust works best with the normal attack that has one-hit kill potential, and charged attack that always kill 1/2 slave rats on nm/cata
• regrowth charged might be tempting, but its effect is limited to larger horde, and even then the teammates might kill the rats too quickly
• with low mobility and slow crowd control attack, a stamina trait is recommended for both offense and defense
• improved pommel pairs naturally with the stronger pushes, devastating blow gives you more space to charge up and it’s the only way to control multiple SVs; both of them reinforce the crowd control role
• perfect balance and endurance can work better if you attack more often than push
• swift slaying buffs mobility and attack speed, the weaknesses of 2h hammer, but it takes more practice to maintain the attack rhythm
• berserk makes your charging process uninterruptible
• scavenger blocks bloodlust and stamina + devastating blow, but you can try it with healing on ranged, e.g. shotguns
• heroic killing blow procs on all targets hit by the charged attack
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push
• damage boon lets you kill cata clan rat on body hits, kill 2nd cata slave rat with charged headshot, and reduces number of hits to kill cata SV by 1
• poison flask trinket can inflict poison to all the rats hit by the charged attack, and occasionally upgrade cata clan rat body hit to a kill, a good pair to the 2h hammer if you have the trinket slot

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Perfect balance + Safety in numbers
Red variant B: Regrowth charged 3% + Perfect balance + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind/Endurance + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance + Safety in numbers

Dwarf Ranger – Great Axe

Strong against / Strengths
SV, clan rat on cata, spread out targets, ogre

Weak against / Weaknesses
Grouped up rats, high density rats;
Low stamina, low mobility, requires charge up time against group

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack deals 10 damage to single target with x1.5 headshot bonus, killing cata clan rats on body and SVs in 2-3 hits; headshots allow you to kill cata SV in 2 hits when compared to 2h hammer; ogre dps is very good as well, especially with backstab; however the high damage is an overkill for nm rats
• normal attacks alone are slow and there is a lot of wasted idle time after the attack is hit, during which you are vulnerable and suffer from significant move slow; either do (1) block cancel or (2) quick switch cancel after an attack to gain some benefits
• the two inputs above also make normal attacks slightly faster, (1) is safer but you will receive the block move slow (this technique is more effective on great axe than on 2h hammers), (2) doesn’t put you in block state but let you move faster to approach the next target (optimal input gives you near 100% move speed)
• unlike most weapons, here you can’t block once the normal attack started, until 0.5s later
• despite that, this is a relatively defensive weapon, very small window to be struck after swing if you go directly into a block, you can keep block up most of the time, quickly attack when there is an opening and cut rats down one at a time; in this regard it plays differently from 2h hammers
• jumping might allow you to hit SV more easily in a horde to compensate for Bardin’s height
• normal attack kills packmaster with one headshot
• charged attack hits 4 targets for decent horde damage, kills 4 nm slave rats per swing, but on cata it’s still lower than 1h weapons, try to hit the head of the 2nd target to kill 2 cata slave rats at once (theoretically up to 4 headshots); against >4 rats bunched up it lacks crowd control because of the low attack speed, you can “joust”[vermintide.fandom.com] behind a teammate to keep swinging
• because of the low mobility and low defense, it’s probably safer to charged attack the rats as they come instead of moving to positions that hits the most rats
• charged attack has good stagger, but on cata the stagger duration is about the same as the time to do one charged attack; also it doesn’t stagger SV overhead unless you are host with devastating blow (same for normal attack)
• with massive killing power but low defensive ability against density, you generally want to quickly murder rats before they can group up
• normal + block cancel is arguably safer than charged attack, and definitely more efficient against any number of cata clan rats
• mobility is the lowest possible of all weapons, worst dodge and slowest block move speed; dodge trinket solves the low dodge count but not the dodge distance and dodge speed
• push ability is standard, same as most 1h weapons
• 2.5 stamina might seem lower than the standard 3, but it still allows you to push 3 times when full because you can push with the last 0.5 stamina
• since normal attack doesn’t require precision to kill most targets, it is quite effective to push to stagger all the rats and chop them down one by one; for that people usually prefer stamina + devastating blow, and they gives you crowd control as well to protect yourself and teammates
• bloodlust is the obvious healing choice on all difficulties; both regrowth work quite badly
• swift slaying normal should have decent up time as normal attack is the main attack, and reinforce the ambient clearing role; both swift slaying normal / charged help to make charged attack safer to use, jousting is easier because faster backward speed, but not to be relied on
• berserk and scavenger are good but block bloodlust, you can use it if you don’t need healing, or have enough from ranged weapon
• devastating blow, aside from the usual benefits, staggers rats for longer so you can mix in more normal attacks in between
• stamina trait is still mostly personal choice, noteworthy points: improved pommel is active defense / offense; improved guard / second wind helps with the block centric style; perfect balance raise stamina to 3.5 but doesn’t avoid guard break from SV overhead; endurance should be less effective because of slow attacks
• backstab provides the best way to damage ogre for Bardin, move backward to bait the ogre punch and hack away when ogre turns it back to you; but you won’t use it on ambient rats and you can take SV faster with two headshots; situationally it can boost charged attack damage on hordes
• killing blow does nothing to most targets, and can cause headshots to ogre do less damage (45 vs 40)

List of traits

Red variant A: Berserk + Improved Pommel + HKB
Red variant B: Berserk + Improved Pommel + Backstab

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Devastating blow + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind/Backstab
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow/Backstab
• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind + Backstab

Dwarf Ranger – Hammer & Shield

Strong against / Strengths
Grouped up rats;
Good crowd control, staggering multiple SVs, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Armor, specials, ogre;
Very low damage output (can be remedied by killing blow), low mobility, very low armor damage

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits infinite targets, great for on-hit traits, but damages only 2 targets and has no headshot multiplier; the third single-target attack has white weapon level damage, better skip it by block or push cancel
• the hammer’s reach is 20% shorter than that of Bardin’s 1h hammer and Kruber’s mace and shield
• charged attack is a shield bash that damages only one target but creates a secondary bubble effect that pushes other rats and SVs back, it only stops SV overhead if it’s the first target
• charged attack speed is slower than axe & shield by 33% (although the first charged attack has a better bubble radius); you should rely on normal attacks and pushes to control crowds
• against SVs, your best bet is still bashing it for 7-10 times with the shield; however, it’s better to control it, kill it with a gun or let teammates do the work
• default push stagger is like other weapons with devastating blow, enough to stagger SV in overhead animation; push radius is longer too (2.5 vs standard 2)
• against dense horde, after you push the first row of rats, the second row can still rush to you so be ready to block or push again
• try to push the rats only when necessary and only in one direction; panic pushing will just spread out the rats and put danger to the team
• don’t use the shield bash on patrol, as the SV overhead has longer reach than your bubble; instead push the closing in ones and move backward slowly
• the superior push is the best defensive action you can get in the game, it protects the user and the teammates if they stand next to you; if you buff it with improved pommel then no rat can touch you
• without any trait, 5 stamina allows you to block an SV overhead and not have guard broken, and it’s easier to get a revive when surrounded
• endurance procs give you full stamina, which is obviously more effective on a shield than on other weapons; it procs on all targets of the shield bash (except for the primary target because bug)
• perfect balance reduces the stamina regen delay and allows you to push again faster when you are out of stamina
• devastating blow is controversial: it flings the rats back and stuns them, making them easy to mistake for dead; some players love this, some consider it counter-productive as you have to chase them around; if you take it, make sure you finish off the stunned ones
• one definite advantage of devastating blow is that mace strike can stop SV overhead and shield bash will now stagger all SV overheads inside the bubble, if you are the host
• regrowth normal is a great choice, you can control the rats while healing to full
• bloodlust is usable only on nm, where the mace can at least kill a slave in one strike
• swift slaying normal has decent uptime, but you can’t roll regrowth normal with it
• regrowth charged and swift slaying charged suffer from low percentage, and you probably won’t use the charged attack; they proc on corpses
• scavenger requires you to actually kill something, which may be a problem, especially on cata
• killing blow is available only on red and blue, hits with 0 damage won’t proc it, but it can proc on headshots on 3rd to infinite targets and on SVs; it gives you a way to deal with SVs, you can use first two swings to stagger rats on each side of an SV and use the third attack on it
• heroic killing blow is weird – each rat (including corpses) in the bubble rolls for a chance to proc it, but it only applies to the primary target; it also has a bug that it never procs on a single target; however it is less effective than axe & shield
• poison trinket can buff your damage output quite a lot, but your teammates would still get the kill most of the time
• poison flask and endurance work the same way as HKB on shield bash
• no matter what traits you take, you simply won’t kill much on cata; get used to being the slow moving impenetrable shield wall and leave dealing damage to others
• please recommend a good gameplay video

List of traits

Red variant A: Killing blow + Perfect balance + Improved guard
Red variant B: Killing blow + Regrowth charged 3% + Scavenger

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Regrowth normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• (Red) Killing blow + Perfect balance + Improved guard
• (Red) Killing blow + Regrowth charged 3% + Scavenger
• (Blue) Killing blow + Regrowth normal

Dwarf Ranger – Axe & Shield

Strong against / Strengths
Clan rat on nm, SV;
Good crowd control, staggering multiple SVs

Weak against / Weaknesses
Clan rat on cata;
Low horde kill speed, low mobility, light attacks have no armor stagger

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attacks hit single target for 6 damage, kill nm rats in one blow, deal good damage of all types but has slower attack speed than 1h axes
• normal 1-2 have no headshot multiplier and normal 3 has x1.5 headshot multiplier (not enough to kill cata clan rats); only normal 3 staggers SVs so be careful if you are used to 1h axes
• charged attack is a shield bash that damages only one target but creates a secondary bubble effect that pushes other rats and SVs back, it only stops SV overhead if it’s the first target
• charged attack speed is the faster ones among all shields, slightly slower than sword & shield; in fact the charged attack speed is pretty close to that of normal attacks
• default push stagger is like other weapons with devastating blow, enough to stagger SV in overhead animation; push radius is longer too (2.5 vs standard 2)
• against dense horde, after you push the first row of rats, the second row can still rush to you so be ready to block or push again
• try to push the rats only when necessary and only in one direction; panic pushing will just spread out the rats and put danger to the team
• pushes and charged attacks chain into normal attacks very quickly, you can do more damage while crowd controlling with push/charged + 1 or 2 normal attacks (for cata slave / clan rats or nm clan rats); this combo is also efficient against SV as you want the push/charged to stagger it
• against nm slave rat horde, the charged attack can already kill one rat at a time so it’s better to just spam charged instead of mixing normal attacks
• charged 1 + normal 1 headshot is very fast and deals 10.5 damage to cata clan rat, you can try it instead of normal 1 + 2
• don’t use the shield bash on patrol, as the SV overhead has longer reach than your bubble; instead push the closing in ones and move backward slowly
• be ware that your axe swing can cancel the previous stagger from shield bash or push
• the superior push is the best defensive action you can get in the game, it protects the user and the teammates if they stand next to you; if you buff it with improved pommel then no rat can touch you
• without any trait, 5 stamina allows you to block an SV overhead and not have guard broken, and it’s easier to get a revive when surrounded
• endurance procs give you full stamina, which is obviously more effective on a shield than on other weapons; it procs on all targets of the shield bash (except for the primary target because bug)
• perfect balance reduces the stamina regen delay and allows you to push again faster when you are out of stamina
• devastating blow is controversial: it flings the rats back and stuns them, making them easy to mistake for dead; some players find it useful, some find it counter-productive as you have to chase them around; if you take it, make sure you finish off the stunned ones
• one definite advantage of devastating blow is that shield bash will now stagger all SV overheads inside the bubble, if you are the host
• bloodlust is strong on nm as you can kill all trash rats in one axe hit, and slave rats with shield bashes
• all healing traits don’t have good proc chance on cata, choose according to your play style: bloodlust if you use axe to kill slaves and clan rats but you need to compete with teammates, regrowth charged if you use charged attack a lot, regrowth normal if you use axe to hit clan rats and SVs; probably bloodlust is the most viable choice, and it procs from drakefire DoT kills
• swift slaying normal can be useful as you would normally use the axe a lot, and boosts your kill speed for bloodlust procs
• regrowth charged and swift slaying charged proc on corpses but not the first target because bug
• scavenger is ok, but Bardin does not need a huge ammo supply except for grudge-raker, and you either get regrowth normal which has low proc chance, or regrowth charged that doesn’t encourage you to kill rats
• berserk is tied to regrowth normal/charged and encourage you to take regrowth normal, which has low proc chance
• heroic killing blow is weird – each rat (including corpses) in the bubble rolls for a chance to proc it, but it only applies to the primary target; it also has a bug that makes it never procs on a single target; combined with fast charged attack it can be useful for SV in horde (or last stand?)
• poison trinket and endurance work the same way as HKB on shield bash
• the red version has 2 sets of unique traits, both come with 2 stamina traits; swift slaying charged is 7%, and the one with perfect balance + endurance has very good stamina regen

List of traits

Red variant A: Swift slaying charged 7% + Perfect balance + Improved guard
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Perfect balance + Endurance

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Regrowth normal/charged + Berserk/Scavenger + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal/charged + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal/charged + Scavenger/Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + HKB
• (Red) Bloodlust + Perfect balance + Endurance

Dwarf Ranger – Pick

Strong against / Strengths
Medium density rats, SV mixed in rats, heavy charged attack against SV

Weak against / Weaknesses
High density rats, clan rat on cata, packmaster, ogre;
Low horde kill speed, low single target kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow), very low mobility

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attacks hit 4 targets for 4/4/3/0 damage and has a very long knockback distance and very long stagger duration, but attack speed is quite slow
• it kills 3 nm slaves per hit, on cata you can kill 2 slave rats by lining up 2 headshots per swing; nm clan rats die from 2 hits, cata clan rats require 2 headshots but they would be knocked around after a hit so headshot is difficult; coupled with the slow attack speed you can’t expect to do much damage
• normal attack can interrupt an SV overhead with a simple body hit, plus it deals 3 damage if it is the first target, so you can just stunlock and kill it eventually
• knockback and stagger duration is like 2h hammer charged, faster but hits fewer targets, probably the fastest way to stagger an SV (even doing overhead) along with a few trash rats and dealing some damage at the same time
• on the other hand, rats also get thrown around by the normal attack, will lie on the floor and be mistaken as dead (more often on cata of course); try to control the direction of the knockback by positioning and finish off the rats on the ground
• normal 1 + block cancel let you throw rats in one direction
• because of the knockback, normal attacks should naturally hit and stagger new targets
• you cannot block during 0.3s-0.7s after a normal attack
• normal attack has excessive move slow which pins you down for a whole second, quick switch to remove it at the end of a fight; block cancel also has some effect
• quick switch cancel can theoretically speed up normal attack speed a lot, but it is used for anti-horde which is usually done with dodge dance, and it’s very difficult to do both efficiently
• charged attack hits single target and has two forms: the quick charged deals 8 damage with only +1 headshot bonus, so it’s fine for nm clanrats, but disappointing on cata, 2 normal attacks take about the same time and do the same damage to SVs and is safer
• when you charge for longer you get the heavy charged attack which can kill everything except ogre; its primary use is to kill cata SVs, but it’s requires charging for more than a whole second, charging it in combat is too slow
• when the heavy charged is ready in the charging process, you get a short move speed boost which is useful to get closer to your target (or away, if you need to)
• that brings it to 2 opportunities for using it: (1) either charge and run straight towards a single SV, make sure no rat can get close to the path, or (2) when teammate is engaged with an SV (with or without trash rats), step back and charge, however this gives up the crowd control position
• jump when you use the charged attack to hit the taller SV if necessary, so you don’t waste it on a trash rat
• if you want to use this fancy move, better inform the teammates because they might kill all the SVs using handgun / crossbow / longbow etc. before you can reach them
• both charged attacks stagger SV overhead
• time to switch away from this weapon after a charged attack is particularly long, noticeable when you try to do a quick snipe
• block cancel after a charged attack is also quite slow so access the surrounding first
• mobility (block / push move speed and dodges) is slightly better than Bardin’s other 2h weapons, but insufficient for dodge dance; dodge trinket is very essential for that style
• push ability is same as most 1h weapons but consecutive push is slower than standard; normal attacks also has better reach
• bloodlust should do worse than regrowth normal in most cases, except for killing nm slave rats in hordes
• attack speed is the main limitation of the crowd control ability and damage output, so swift slaying and berserk allow you to control rats just by swinging, and in addition makes charging faster; swift slaying has the mobility advantage which is worth using even with bloodlust
• killing blow helps a lot on cata as you can pop instant kills while controlling rats and SVs (can proc on 1st armored target), and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers; unfortunately it’s tied to off balance, which is not so useful without improved guard / second wind
• devastating blow mostly helps against hyperdensity or multiple SVs, but you can spread them out given good positioning; a stamina trait should have higher priority if you only choose one
• scavenger provides ammo to your crossbow / grudge-raker for faster trash rat kills
• damage boon is very useful for cata, as it pushes the weapon past the important breakpoints: 5 damage to kill slaves in one hit, clan rats in two, quick charged kills clan rats and packmasters
• poison flask adds 4 or 5 damage, which can finish off some rats lying around
• red pick has very strong trait combo killing blow + bloodlust + swift slaying normal, which has insane kill speed, especially against SVs, and covers most of the weaknesses of the weapon
• imo the pick’s characteristic is the relatively fast way to control and damage SV mixed in some trash rats (2h hammers require charging), and enjoys the healing from regrowth normal

List of traits

Red variant A: Killing blow + Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7%
Red variant B: Regrowth normal 10% + Scavenger + Perfect balance

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+ Off balance)
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• (Red) Killing blow + Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal

Dwarf Ranger – Handgun

Strong against / Strengths
Specials, ambient SV, lined up SVs, patrol

Weak against / Weaknesses
Multiple specials, ogre;
Long reload time, armor requires headshot

Attack and damage pattern

• one bodyshot from this hand-cannon kills gasrats, assassins and packmasters on both nm and cata; it leaves SVs and gunners at 2 hp on nm and 8 hp on cata, on nm you can easily finish the SV with melee instead of waiting to reload and spending more ammo
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets
• the shots can stagger SV overhead
• on cata, always try to headshot SVs and gunners; generally speaking this weapon is more aim-skill based, ammo efficiency is very good if you can one shot everything, but it punishes missing shots
• normal shots and charged shots deal exactly the same damage; it takes almost half a second to zoom down the sight, the zoomed shot is pin-point accurate if standing still and has minimal spread while moving, but you move at 25% speed; the unzoomed shot is also fairly accurate while standing still, but the spread is horrible when firing from the hip on the move
• unlike most other games, crouching usually make the ranged weapons less accurate
• use zoomed shots to aim at the heads or distant targets, but it’s worth to learn shooting from the hip against closer targets as it has better fire rate
• try to shoot those idle SVs before they notice you, wait until they turn the head to make sure their head won’t move; once they are approaching it’s difficult to hit the head
• the shooting noise will attract nearby rats and SVs, so it’s better to shoot further away
• the weapon itself is identical to Kruber’s, but Bardin’s height makes him harder to see; rats, teammates and obstacles can block your sight and your shot
• press reload right after a shot to make reload faster, mastercrafted helps with the painfully long reload
• skirmisher not only allows you to strafe faster while aiming, but also removes the spread while moving and firing from the hip; great for making precise quick-shots in tight situations and let you adjust position for a better snipe angle
• each shot hits only 2 targets, rupture improves it to 4, useful for patrols, hitting specials through packed crowds, or thinning out hordes; for Bardin it’s quite helpful, especially in narrow maps
• ammo holder gives you spare shots in case you miss, or just more ammo to be spent on clan rats and ogres
• bloodlust or scavenger might be useful, but without rupture you won’t kill that much and scavenger gives you only 1 bullet, even with ammo holder; regrowth is just worse than bloodlust
• skullcracker is better for the sniping job than hail of doom, as the second shot from HoD has a large spread
• hawkeye increases ogre headshot damage by 50%, worth trying if you don’t have a need for other traits; it doesn’t help with other targets though
• knockback has 40% chance but it has a bug to make it more useful
• devastating blow on your melee weapon can help to give you space to reload, or push SVs to allow for easy headshot
• if damage boon is on, you can one-bodyshot-kill SVs and gunners on nm

List of traits

Red variant A: Mastercrafted + Rupture + Bloodlust
Red variant B: Mastercrafted + Ammo holder + Hail of doom

Recommended trait combinations:

• Mastercrafted + Skirmisher + Rupture/Ammo holder/Skullcracker/Hawkeye

Dwarf Ranger – Crossbow

Strong against / Strengths
Ambient SV, up to 5 rats lined up in a row, gunner

Weak against / Weaknesses
Assassin, packmaster on cata, moving targets

Attack and damage pattern

• one bolt can kill 5 rats (10 damage) in one hit, or 8 armor / 35 resistant damage; has potential of dealing a lot of damage in cata, but you have to line up your targets to make most of it
• the bolt doesn’t penetrate armored or resistant targets
• the bolt has practically no ballistic drop although it is a projectile weapon
• all specials on nm and cata require at least 2 bodyshots to kill, and SVs and gunners on cata take 3; a bodyshot and melee finish is a good tactics as well
• the bolt can stagger SV overheads
• x2.5 headshot modifier allows you to one headshot kill SVs and gunners on cata, better ammo efficiency than handgun if you do that often
• moving targets, especially assassins, are difficult to snipe as the bolt has flight time and you need to lead the targets; scoring headshots is even harder, you might consider rapid bodyshots
• normal shots and charged shots deal exactly the same damage; it takes a quarter second to zoom down the sight, the zoomed shot is pin-point accurate if standing still and has minimal spread while moving, but you move at 25% speed; the unzoomed shot is also fairly accurate while standing still and slightly inaccurate on the move
• unlike most other games, crouching usually make the ranged weapons less accurate
• use zoomed shots to aim at the heads or distant targets, but it’s worth to learn shooting from the hip against closer targets as it has better fire rate
• try to shoot those idle SVs before they notice you, wait until they turn the head to make sure their head won’t move; once they are approaching it’s difficult to hit the head
• this weapon is silent, you can snipe rats down in a group one by one and being unnoticed the whole time; one way to progress through the map is to shoot only the rats on the way and sneak pass the oblivious ones
• unique to crossbows: if you are being damaged, the crosshair spread is much larger than other weapons, friendly fire burn or poison damage makes it unable to shoot for 3-5 seconds
• the weapon stat is identical to Saltzpyre’s, but Bardin’s height makes him harder to see; rats, teammates and obstacles can block your sight and your shot
• the orange and red versions of Bardin’s crossbow have weapon models that block the crosshair while zooming; you can use QoL/VMF to change its model to the blue version
• mastercrafted enhances every bit of the crossbow’s performance: faster consecutive bodyshots to kill specials and SVs, higher fire rate to kill horde, safer to reload etc.
• scavenger is sweet if you primarily shoot rats and score a lot of kills during hordes, and you can heal a lot with bloodlust
• uniquely, you can roll bloodlust + regrowth, but having an ammo trait instead of regrowth would allow you to spam shots and proc more bloodlust
• hail of doom is also useful for all purposes: bonus shots to dense rats, occasional double bodyshots to kill specials, or lucky headshots from the bonus shot; notice that the bonus shot has medium spread
• ammo holder gives you more ammo for all targets, but it doesn’t increase scavenger return; scavenger can generate more ammo on its own
• skullcracker on crossbow is tied to inspirational shot; it’s better than hail of doom in the sense that its proc can kill SV and gunner on cata
• hawkeye increases ogre headshot damage by 40%, but you don’t need it for other targets; worth considering for Bardin as he doesn’t have other anti-ogre ranged weapons
• skirmisher allows you to strafe faster while aiming and removes the spread while moving; it’s not a huge improvement as the crossbow already has acceptable accuracy while moving
• knockback has 40% chance can will occasionally knock down the targets you didn’t kill for follow up shots
• devastating blow on your melee weapon can help to give you space to reload, or push SVs to allow for easy headshot
• if damage boon is on, you can two-bodyshot-kill SVs and gunners on cata and one-bodyshot-kill packmasters on cata

List of traits

Red variant A: Mastercrafted + Skullcracker + Bloodlust
Red variant B: Mastercrafted + Ammo holder + Hail of doom

Recommended trait combinations:

• Mastercrafted + Scavenger + Hail of doom/Bloodlust/Ammo holder
• Mastercrafted + Hail of doom + Ammo holder/Bloodlust
• Mastercrafted + Bloodlust + Regrowth
• Mastercrafted + any reasonable combinations
• (Red) Mastercrafted + Skullcracker + Bloodlust

Dwarf Ranger – Grudge-raker

Strong against / Strengths
Grouped up rats, close gasrat and assassin, patrol & Krench w/ strength potion;
Good heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Spread out rats, armor, ogre, packmaster;
Relatively low total ammo

Attack and damage pattern

• normal shot deals massive damage against normal targets up close, capable of killing all rats, globadiers and assassins on cata; the damage is heavily reduced over distance, however
• each pellet hits only 2 targets; ammo efficiency and horde killing power is questionable
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets
• there is a 0.1 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual shot
• if your field of view is not 65, then the crosshair size doesn’t represent the actual spread; practice in the inn to know the spread
• you can fire full-auto by holding left click, which has 24% faster fire rate than left clicking
• instead of charged shot there is a bash, damaging one target for medium damage (enough to kill a slave on nightmare) and knocking the others back; good for last second defense, stunlocking single SV, or arranging rats into a compact bundle before shooting
• the bash radius (2m) is comparable to shields, longer than that of blunderbuss (1.5m)
• the shot deals some damage to SVs, gunners and packmasters up close, but be ready to fire again, or finish them with a hammer or axe
• the spread of the pellets is denser than blunderbuss, and you have multiple shots, making the grudge-raker a better special hunter
• the shot is loud, so expect to attract a lot of rats upon shooting
• despite the poor armor damage, each pellet can stagger an SV and you can clear small rats around the SV; drinking str pot massively boosts your armor damage, good for fighting patrol
• str pot also increases your friendly fire damage from 0.5 per pellet to 18; you can kill your entire party so be very careful with your shots
• reload time is quite long for the small clip size, but normal shots can cancel reloading so there is no reason not to reload; in fact, you can improve fire rate by more than double if you reload after every shot and shoot while reloading, good for tight situations or shooting horde in a wide arc
• extra capacity doubles your clip size, greatly improves your sustained fire power, and is better than mastercrafted at reducing your overall time spend on actual reload
• rupture doubles the penetration, it is mandatory if you want to turn it into a horde killer
• scavenger helps with the low total ammo, can be buffed by rupture; you can kill rats with the butt at low ammo, damaging rats with your melee weapon and finishing them with the bash works great
• bloodlust is ok if you use the gun aggressively, you can kill faster than your teammates but not that many, unless supported by rupture, scavenger, ammo holder etc.
• bashing group of rats with regrowth is one of the best ways of healing in the game
• mastercrafted is good, but not necessary if you have extra capacity
• ammo holder doesn’t increase scavenger’s ammo return, so other good traits should take higher priority
• targeteer reduces bullet spread only, not the damage drop-off; it still makes the gun much more effective against distant targets due to more projectiles hitting them, making it a very good gasrat and assassin sniper, but also causes more pellets to be absorbed by the first targets in a horde, so it’s a trade-off; if you use it, fire at hordes from further away to adjust for the smaller spread
• hail of doom is more luck based than the other traits, and a waste on targets that doesn’t require more than one shot; its proc is done per shot, not per pellet
• knockback, on paper, helps with controlling multiple SVs in clutch situations, 40% is a decent chance given that you hit many SVs, there is a bug however
• grudge-raker is also a very effective Krench killer if your team can save str pot for the fight
• red version has a perfect trait combo with a higher percentage scavenger

List of traits

Red variant A: Extra capacity 100% + Mastercrafted reload + Skullcracker
Red variant B: Extra capacity 100% + Rupture + Scavenger 24%

Recommended trait combinations:

• Extra capacity + Rupture + Scavenger
• Extra capacity + Scavenger + Bloodlust/Regrowth/Ammo holder/Targeteer
• Extra capacity + Targeteer + Hail of doom/Mastercrafted reload <- for Krench
• (Red) Extra capacity + Rupture + Scavenger 24%

Dwarf Ranger – Drakefire Pistols

Strong against / Strengths
Normal rats in any formation, SV mixed in rats, mass SVs, patrol, packmaster;
Infinite ammo, great crowd control, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Specials depending on distance, hopeless against distant gunner;
Low accuracy

Attack and damage pattern

(X1>X2)+Y = Attacks instantly deal X damage based on distance (X1 up close, decreasing to X2 for distant targets), plus they set targets on fire for two seconds, dealing a total of Y damage

• normal attack hits single target, kills one nm clan rat / cata slave in one hit up close; damage is reduced over distance, headshots can sometimes allow you to one shot rats at medium or far distance
• accuracy is low for distant targets, but the radius of the fireball and the fire rate makes it easier to hit moving targets e.g. assassins at medium range
• damage on assassins, gas rats and packmasters is decent, you just need to hit it enough number of times; you can stagger SVs and gunners when they are not doing overhead or shooting, but don’t expect to do significant damage
• normal attack produces the loudest sound to rats’ ears, firing it often attract every rat already spawned in the map
• it’s not very noticeable, but normal attack reduces move speed by 10% for 0.75s
• charged attack is a short range blast that hits a maximum of 10 targets for serious knockback and damage to all rats and SVs; it has damage over time to trigger melee bloodlust but the DoT total damage is random
• SVs will take 3-3.5 total damage at close range and the blast is one of the best way to deal with mass SVs, multiple of them can be stunlocked and kept at distance while they burn to death
• heat cost of the blast is high, so the frequency at which you can use it depends on heat management and traits
• the charged attack cone has an angle about 35 degree on each side of the crosshair center; check your field of view (the number is the vertical angle from the top of screen to the bottom) to estimate the effective area on the screen; it can only target the necks of rats
• only the inner 21 degree of the cone deals friendly fire damage
• the fire rate of the blast is almost half of beam staff blast, but double the stagger duration
• “finger rolling”: release right click for a split second between blasts for faster blasting speed
• since the blast push rats back and (tries to) targets the closet rats, 2-3 blasts can handle density to some degree because each blast should stagger new rats, albeit a bit random; however, make sure to keep your distance in case a rat slips pass the flame when you are not ready to fire the next shot
• the blast can substitute melee push; it has longer reach but only in one direction; you can hold right click to block with your melee and switch weapons, drakes will pop up with the charged mode ready to fire
• move speed is reduced in charged state, firing charged let you move at 100% speed until the next charging phase
• you can also quick switch to drakes and use the normal attack to stagger rat / SV in a pinch
• drakes don’t use ammo, but generate heat instead; it’s the only ranged weapon other than the staves that uses the overheat system, choosing it can save ammo drops for your teammates
• overheat system summary: you only take damage when you vent above the first 25% threshold; the vent speed and vent damage increase the higher your overheat is; there is a slow passive cooling even when you don’t vent; you will explode when you reach max heat, taking all your hp away
• channeling rune is top choice, although less mandatory than it on wizard’s staves because the drakes don’t have much long range applications and you won’t use it all the time; still venting can hurt without it, and your melee performance suffers on high heat
• on-hit traits can be triggered by the normal attack and the charged blast on all targets
• healing trait is usually recommended because you can recover from the vent damage by shooting; bloodlust can work better than regrowth on nm as the blast can instantly kill most slave rats up close, and it benefits from ambient kills; on cata you usually blast the horde 2-3 times so regrowth is better, plus you can switch to melee bloodlust for double heals
• haste has decent up time no matter you are shooting ambients or blasting horde, it complements the slow fire rate and high heat of the charged blast, and you can kill entire horde or patrol with almost no cost, also boost the healing you can get from bloodlust or regrowth; it’s the only trait that makes drakes better than beam staff
• berserk is under the same situation as bloodlust: it can work on nm horde, but on cata it procs after something is killed, that means later in the engagement and you won’t benefit from the free shots as much; also less effective against patrol
• targeteer reduces bullet spread only, not the damage drop-off, nor the cone of effect of the charged blast; the trait makes normal shots more accurate for distant targets
• hail of doom only procs when using normal shots, helps you to kill single target faster, or more fireball barrage against distant targets; it doesn’t affect the charged blast
• mastercrafted has effect on normal shots, but on charged shots only when you do finger rolling
• distraction allows you to save a nearby downed teammate with a blast

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth 7% + Hail of doom + Stability
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Channeling Rune + Distraction

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth + Haste + Channeling rune <- best
• Bloodlust/Regrowth + Haste/Berserk/Targeteer/Hail of doom/Knockback/Mastercrafted/Stability + Channeling rune

Bright Wizard – Mace

Strong against / Strengths
1-2 clan rats on cata, spread out rats, SV

Weak against / Weaknesses
>4 grouped up rats;
Low crowd control – any staff that deals with horde is good

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attacks have an unusual pattern: vertical single target -> upward diagonal 4 targets -> diagonal 3 targets -> diagonal 3 targets
• first normal attack deals 5 damage to normal rat and 4 damage to armor; requires a headshot to kill clan rat on nm, but decent damage against SV and staggers SV overhead
• second normal attack deals 6 damage to one normal rat and staggers 4 targets, but the hit zone is too narrow to be useful outside of overlapping rats, even with camera movement; treat it as a safer single target attack, it kills clan rat on nm, decent damage to SV but can’t stagger SV overhead
• third and fourth normal attacks are the conventional left-right swings that hit 3 targets, but very slow to execute; they don’t provide any real advantages over other weapons either
• charged attack hits single normal target for 10 damage and deals solid damage to armor; it’s the only melee attack on wizard that can one shot cata clan rat, use it on ambient rats to conserve heat
• you will struggle against horde; push first to initiate your normal / charged attack, you will start with the second normal attack after you push, which helps with dense rats; nevertheless you will take random hits unless you use the staff or push a lot
• the best way to kill SV is to use first normal attack 4-5 times (use block cancel), much higher DPS and more frequent stagger than charged attack; mix in the second normal attack if a few rats are around
• the mace has better ogre DPS than 1h sword, when you can’t headshot it
• the attack speed and move speed slow down by 15-25% when you have medium to high overheat on the staff; put channeling rune on the staff and vent a bit before going to melee
• this weapon is among those whose block move speed equals push move speed
• you can roll bloodlust and berserk at the same time, they work with both attack types and proc on staff DOT kills; very useful if you focus on charged attack
• regrowth normal can work if you bonk SVs a lot, and use second normal attack on rats
• both earthing runes are much less effective than those on swords; channeling rune on staves just works better
• killing blow speeds up SV kills, take it if that is your primary purpose with the mace; it is tied to backstab and blocks both bloodlust and berserk
• push-related stamina traits and devastating blow help with the push focus style; push most of the rats and finish them one by one, or fight the few standing ones remained
• backstab sounds interesting, but its usefulness depends on your positioning; a niche use is that conflag blast makes rats focus on the blast core and exposing their backs to you, in that case first and second normal attacks can one shot cata clan rat
• backstab increases ogre DPS if you decide to melee it
• backstab benefits from swift slaying move speed buff as you get reach the back more easily
• heroic killing blow might be interesting for last stand, as the charged attack is relatively fast
• you can bring this weapon to break mission objective chains faster, e.g. in River Reik
• overall, this weapon should be accompanied by a staff that protects you from hordes, unless the team can handle that part

• BW Mace + Fireball Staff Guide from Vermintide

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Second wind + HKB
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Earthing rune normal + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Berserk + Stamina/Devastating blow/Earthing rune normal/charged
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal + Backstab
• Bloodlust + Earthing rune normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• (Red) Bloodlust + Second wind + HKB <- for last stand probably

Bright Wizard – 1h Sword

Strong against
>2 grouped up rats, everything w/ killing blow;
Great heal w/ regrowth, venting heat w/ earthing rune

Weak against
Relatively low SV and single cata clan rat kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow)

Attack and damage pattern

• first two normal attacks are fast swings with very long reach that hit 4 targets with x2 headshot multiplier; nm clan rat and cata slave die from 1 headshot, and cata clan rat dies from 2
• the second normal attack is a horizontal swing that can hit 4 heads and deal 6/4/4/4 damage; it can easily surpass most melee weapons in term of kill speed
• the third normal attack is a vertical slash with no headshot multiplier, it deals about the same damage as normal 1/2 headshot, but also good armor damage
• against a horde, tap block to cancel the third swing to get better crowd control; given enough space to maneuver and spread out the density, the normal attacks alone with dodge dance are more than sufficient to handle a horde, not even block or push is needed
• normal 1 + block cancel offers much more block active time, safer to use when you have low health
• charged attack hits infinite targets in a horizontal line, dealing damage to first two; it can be used to control high density rats, but the stagger duration is short, on cata it is even shorter than the time between two charged attacks
• facing dense horde, first charged + second normal combo is a good compromise of control and damage
• charged attack can stagger SVs and you can control the rats on one side of an SV
• to kill SVs, do two charged headshots and follow up with the third normal headshot; this combo deals a total of 12 damage and all 3 hits can stagger
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• the weapon itself is identical to Kruber’s 1h sword, but it has extra traits (earthing runes) and extra trait combos (bloodlust + berserk etc.)
• the attack speed and move speed slow down by 15-25% when you have medium to high overheat on the staff; put channeling rune on the staff and vent a bit before going to melee
• it could be difficult to pull off charged attack on high heat
• choice for healing depends on your play style; if you have a staff that deals damage over time then the delayed kills can proc bloodlust when you switch to melee, and if all the rats have half hp then you have much fewer chances to proc regrowth normal; if you don’t use the staff much or has bolt staff then regrowth normal is generally better, but both regrowth block earthing rune
• both earthing rune normal / charged are effective; charged version has the advantage in a dense horde, but you might have a staff that kills the horde already; normal version is more useful in general; both are not necessary as you should roll channeling rune on the staff
• berserk can also proc from the staff’s DOT kills and counter the low attack speed on high heat
• the bloodlust + berserk + earthing rune normal / charged combo can vent your staff quickly, but leaves you no defensive traits
• killing blow further improves the horde kill speed, and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers (can be used to get lucky procs on SV headshot too, and the 3rd swing procs on body); unfortunately it’s tied to off balance, which is not so useful without improved guard / second wind; killing blow also blocks bloodlust and berserk
• swift slayings are useful by themselves but block regrowth normal and earthing runes; when swift slaying is on, it might be more efficient to do normal attack spam instead of normal 1+2 + block cancel
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• devastating blow let you push SV overheads if you can’t dodge; note that for a few normal rats it can throw them away so far that normal swings can’t hit multiple of them anymore
• heroic killing blow procs on all targets hit by the charged attack; the charged attack is not very fast, but the long reach allows you to keep hitting ogre safely in any direction

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Earthing rune normal + Devastating blow
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Earthing rune normal + Perfect balance

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Berserk/Earthing rune normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Berserk + Earthing rune normal/charged
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Off balance)
• Regrowth normal + Berserk + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• Regrowth normal + Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB

Bright Wizard – Flaming Sword

Strong against / Strengths
High density rats, any number of rats;
Good heal w/ regrowth, venting heat w/ earthing rune

Weak against / Weaknesses
Relatively low SV and single cata clan rat kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow)

Attack and damage pattern

• first two normal attacks are fast swings with very long reach that hit 3 targets with no headshot multiplier, the second attack does lower damage but has even longer reach; it is essentially a weaker 1h sword, but the attacks have double the stagger duration
• first two normal attacks visually set rats on fire but doesn’t deal actual damage over time
• the third normal attack is a thrust with x2 headshot multiplier that applies a DOT that deals 3 damage over 3 seconds; you can one shot headshot a cata clan rat with good aim, or cause 4.75 total damage to SV on body and a whooping 7.25 total damage on headshot; it does not stagger SV, however
• if you are fighting a horde and don’t need the third normal attack, it might be better to use first swing only and cancel the others by block or push; try to hit new targets with every swing to stagger more enemies to keep you safe
• charged attack hits infinite targets and set them on fire, dealing 2 damage over 2.5 seconds to rats, hitting the heads gives a bonus 1 damage; the stagger to normal rats is on par with 2h hammer charged, but minimal to SVs; use it to control the rats on one side of an SV
• some players hate the fire effect as you can’t see the rats’ actions
• damage over time is also a worse damage source than direct damage, because rats can still stab you before they die, and absorb other damage
• to kill SVs, do two charged headshots and follow up with the third normal headshot; this combo deals a total of 15.25 damage, including DOT
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• consecutive push is slower than standard
• the attack speed and move speed slow down by 15-25% when you have medium to high overheat on the staff; put channeling rune on the staff and vent a bit before going to melee
• the charged attack is a bit too slow to be used without support from teammates, especially on high heat, attack speed traits can help a bit
• choice for healing depends on your play style; if you have a staff that deals damage over time then the delayed kills can proc bloodlust when you switch to melee, and if all the rats have half hp then you have much fewer chances to proc regrowth normal; if you don’t use the staff much or has bolt staff then regrowth normal is generally better, but both regrowth block earthing rune
• both earthing rune normal / charged are effective; charged version has the advantage in a dense horde, but you might have a staff that kills the horde already; normal version is more useful in general; both are not necessary as you should roll channeling rune on the staff
• berserk can also proc from the staff’s DOT kills and counter the low attack speed on high heat
• rather unique combination of bloodlust and berserk is available, which, in combination with earting rune, provides both healing and vent, plus it’s not limited to an attack type; but it leaves you no defensive traits
• killing blow is less effective because of fewer target hits, it can help to get lucky procs on SVs, but you should use more charged attack when possible with flaming sword; killing blow is also tied to safety in numbers and blocks bloodlust and berserk
• swift slayings are useful by themselves but block regrowth normal and earthing runes; when swift slaying is on, it might be more efficient to do normal attack spam instead of normal 1+2 + block cancel
• devastating blow and any stamina trait that gives you more pushes help to protect yourself from SVs, to prepare the charged attack, and to push rats into your attack arcs
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push, you can try it with improved pommel / perfect balance
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• heroic killing blow procs on all targets hit by the charged attack
• poison flask can buff the damage output of charged attack
• all in all, compared to the 1h sword, the flaming sword serves better in the cornering situation where the horde stacks in front of the team

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth normal 10% + Earthing rune charged + Improved pommel
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Earthing rune charged + Improved pommel

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Berserk/Earthing rune normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Berserk + Earthing rune normal/charged
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Safety in numbers)
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Regrowth normal + Earthing rune charged + Improved pommel

Bright Wizard – Ceremonial Dagger

Strong against / Strengths
Running away from enemies, speed running, 1st charged attack has ok crowd control, above average ogre damage

Weak against / Weaknesses
The dagger fails when engaging in melee combat

Attack and damage pattern

• conclusion first: this dagger is not made for melee combat, but gives the wizard move speed to run away from danger and use the staff
• push attack spam gives you about 1.2x move speed on average, you can outrun clan rats and SVs by a little; combined with the move speed trinket you can even outrun packmasters
• obviously, improved pommel gives you more than double amount of push stabs, greatly helps to sustain the move speed
• the push stab is counted as a normal attack, so it can proc swift slaying normal to further buff your move speed
• as a secondary selling point, the first charged attack is a shield bash that deals damage over time to all target in the stagger bubble effect; it can be to provide decent crowd control; to do it, charge again after it ends as soon as physically possible
• the default push strength is weaker than average, devastating blow can buff both the pushes and the stagger of the first charged attack (staggers all SV overheads in the bubble, if you are host)
• standard (but irrelevant) information:
• the first three normal attacks hit single target for poor damage, neither the x3 headshot multiplier or the fast attack speed can make up for it, but they give you bonus move speed while attacking, you can use them if you are out of stamina
• the fourth normal attack deals good damage, but you need to do the other three in the combo to get to it
• normal 1-4 all headshots combined deal 19.5 damage to SV, none of them staggers it
• after normal 3, the attack chain takes a much longer wait to automatically reset to normal 1, which means the stronger normal 4 will be your next swing for that duration
• first charged is good for staggering rats and setting them on fire for minimal damage, it can be chained to itself (see above), or just chain into quick normal and reset
• second charged is single target again with DoT, it kills cata slaves on body and cata clan rats on headshot, and deals good total damage to SV; you can use first charged to stagger rats and snipe SV with second charged, but it would be easier using most staves
• charged 1 chains into normal 2, and charged 2 chains into normal 3, you can get to normal 4 if you don’t do canceling
• push strength is weaker than average, rats won’t be pushed back as much
• bloodlust benefits from rats dying from your conflag/fireball/beam staves and provides the best healing; you might want regrowth normal / charged if combined with bolt staff
• among all stamina traits, probably improved pommel (see above) and second wind have better synergy with the weapon as a mobility tool
• charged earthing can get your heat down with infinite target 1st charged attack effectively
• heroic killing blow is weird – each rat (including corpses) in the bubble rolls for a chance to proc it, but it only applies to the primary target; it also has a bug that makes it never procs on a single target; combined with fast charged attack it can be useful for SV in horde (or last stand?)
• poison trinket and endurance work the same way as HKB on shield bash
• most other traits require you to use it as a melee weapon, apart from that most of them do their jobs, except those normal attack on-hit traits which are less effective

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Earthing rune charged + Devastating blow
Red variant B: Killing blow + Bloodlust + Earthing rune normal

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust/Swift slaying normal + Improved pommel + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Earthing rune charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth charged + Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Killing blow + Bloodlust + Earthing rune normal

Bright Wizard – Bolt Staff

Strong against / Strengths
Specials, SV, ogre, moving targets, targets behind obstacles, horde in nm, ambient clan rat on cata, up to 5 lined up clan rats on cata

Weak against / Weaknesses
Weaker against horde compared to other staves, SV and gunner take longer to kill and cost more overheat, harder heat management

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack shoots fast sparks, each hitting only one target, but you can knock back the foremost advancing rat in a horde so you can hold a horde at choke point for a while; the sparks have even better kill speed and heat efficiency than conflagration staff’s fireballs, but don’t stagger armor
• charged attack is a target seeking bolt with x3.5 headshot multiplier, automatically aiming for head if the target is highlighted in red, body otherwise
• some trueflight mechanics here…
• bolt has three levels of charge, first is enough to kill all unarmored targets, second to kill armor on nm, third to kill armor on cata or to pierce 5 rats; medium and maximum bolts are both good for ogre
• all bolts don’t penetrate armored or resistant targets
• you can spam minimum bolt to ambient clan rats and vent in between, use sparks on horde, or use maximum bolt to kill 5 clan rats
• all charged shots stagger SV overhead, you can help a far away teammate with a minimum bolt in a pinch
• the charge locks onto the first target hit by the line of sight, regardless of accuracy, often leads to target switch when another rat walks in front of the desired target; the red outline can be visually overwritten by the blue outline from ping, but the lock mechanics still functions; there are mods that make the bolt ignores ping
• you can curve the bolt by locking onto the target and shoot to somewhere else; use this to get around obstacles, rats and teammates
• after piercing, the bolt looks for bodyshot on a random target; you can control where it goes by curving the bolt at the desired angle
• for targets within 0-10m, there isn’t enough space for the bolt to curve itself so you will have to aim at the head or the body of the target, even when it is locked; also it’s easier to miss at close range if the target moves the head
• overheat system summary: you only take damage when you vent above the first 25% threshold; the vent speed and vent damage increase the higher your overheat is; there is a slow passive cooling even when you don’t vent; you will explode when you reach max heat, taking all your hp away
• channeling rune is almost mandatory, as venting can hurt without it, which greatly reduces the frequency at which you can use the staff, and your melee performance suffers on high heat
• bolt staff doesn’t provide as much healing as the other staves, so you can’t vent at high heat as often, and heat management is more crucial
• bloodlust is usually preferred over regrowth, as you usually kill your target with the bolt
• if you have regrowth, using the sparks more gives you better chance to proc it
• the bolt can trigger melee bloodlust or berserk if you switch before the bolt hits
• stability might be a good choice because there aren’t many competitors, and it helps with heat management
• hail of doom affects sparks and bolts; the extra bolt will home to the head of the target in red outline, or if that target is dead before it hits or no target is locked, it would find new targets to do bodyshot
• with inspirational shot, hitting trash rat head restores 0.5 stamina to your party and hitting everything-else head replenishes 5 stamina; particularly useful in the ogre fight when the teammates often run out due to ogre punches
• knockback lets you stagger SV with sparks but it only triggers every 2 seconds on average, you would be better off shooting a bolt at it
• the red version has an interesting skullcracker + inspirational shot combo that lets you supply stamina spamming sparks on horde, or bolts through several rats when the subsequent bodyshots can be upgraded to headshots

List of traits

Red variant A: Skullcracker + Inspirational shot + Stability
Red variant B: Hail of doom + Inspirational shot + Stability

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Hail of doom/Stability/Inspirational shot + Channeling rune

Bright Wizard – Beam Staff

Strong against / Strengths
Everything;
Good crowd control and horde kill speed, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Weaker against mass SVs compared to other staves, SV and gunner cost more overheat if you can’t headshot

Attack and damage pattern

(X1>X2)+Y = blast deals X damage immediately (decreasing over distance from X1 to X2) and sets all targets on fire, dealing total of Y damage over 2 seconds
X+Y = beam deals X damage every tick and sets the target on fire, dealing total of Y damage over 3 seconds

• normal attack is a short range blast that hits a maximum of 10 targets for serious knockback and damage, but doens’t stagger SVs; it has damage over time to trigger melee bloodlust but the DoT total damage is random
• there is a 0.3 second delay between pressing the blast button and the actual blast
• the normal attack cone has an angle about 35 degree on each side of the crosshair center; check your field of view (the number is the vertical angle from the top of screen to the bottom) to estimate the effective area on the screen; it can only target the necks of rats
• only the inner 21 degree of the cone deals friendly fire damage
• the fire rate of the blast is almost double of drakefire pistols blast
• since the blast push rats back and (tries to) targets the closet rats, 2-3 blasts can handle density to some degree because each blast should stagger new rats, albeit a bit random
• the blast can substitute melee push; it has longer reach but only in one direction
• charged attack is a beam that sets targets on fire, the tick frequency increases the longer you channel it to the same target
• the beam stunlocks all units except packmaster and ogre, but you are rather slow and the zoom makes it difficult to watch your surrounding
• switching target during channeling resets the tick frequency and there is an extra 1.5 seconds delay before the next beam tick starts again, but still costing overheat in between; because of this, raying the beam on a horde doesn’t deal good damage
• the beam is a great way of killing ogre, just keep channeling so that it reaches max frequency; failing to keep the beam on target significantly lowers the DPS
• left click during channeling the beam results in a single-target handgun shot, costs medium heat, enough to kill clan rat on cata; kill ambients and vent a bit between shots
• it takes about 1-1.5 seconds (frame rate dependent) to transit from the shotgun spread to the handgun spread, making it more difficult to score headshot; the crosshair size will tell you how accurate it is relatively, although it doesn’t represent the actual spread
• the beam tick can shake the target’s head, which further increases headshot difficulty
• 2 ways to achieve headshots: (1) aim and shoot the beam above in the air, lower the beam and as soon as it hits the head, detonate, (2) stagger the target by beam and time the shot
• against specials you can do 2 shots, or combine beam ticks and shots, e.g. packmaster on cata takes 1 tick + 1 shot
• killing SVs and gunners on cata with 3 bodyshots costs quite a lot of overheat
• overheat system summary: you only take damage when you vent above the first 25% threshold; the vent speed and vent damage increase the higher your overheat is; there is a slow passive cooling even when you don’t vent; you will explode when you reach max heat, taking all your hp away
• channeling rune is almost mandatory, as venting can hurt without it, which greatly reduces the frequency at which you can use the staff, and your melee performance suffers on high heat
• on-hit traits can be triggered by each beam tick, the beam shot and the blast on all targets
• healing trait is usually recommended because you can recover from the vent damage by using your staff; bloodlust can work better than regrowth on nm as the blast can instantly kill most slave rats up close, and it benefits from ambient kills; on cata you usually blast the horde 2-3 times so regrowth is better
• hawkeye makes you one shot headshot SVs and gunners on cata, also boosting ogre damage if you use the handgun shot
• skirmisher helps to give you more mobility and more accurate handgun shot on the move
• mastercrafted has effect on the blast fire rate, not on the beam tick frequency, it helps to get more blasts in before the rats are knocked back for higher damage; it has minor effect on handgun shot fire rate, but larger effect if you do “finger roll”: release right click briefly after each shot can make the next shot faster with mastercrafted; also works if you vent between shots
• knockback helps you to control mass SVs with blasts but the percentage is low
• distraction benefits from infinite ammo and AOE
• hail of doom only affects the handgun shot, and the bonus shot is inaccurate
• damage boon lets you one shot headshot SVs and gunners on cata without hawkeye
• beam staff offers the best versatility of all staffs, you have an answer to everything, headshotting is skill-based if you want to achieve max effectiveness
• the red version has worse regrowth percentage than orange version

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth 5% + Stability + Distraction
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Skirmisher + Stability

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust/Regrowth + Hawkeye/Mastercrafted/Skirmisher/Stability/Knockback/Distraction + Channeling rune

Bright Wizard – Fireball Staff

Strong against / Strengths
Horde, grouped up rats, packmaster, mass SVs, ogre;
Great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Specials behind obstacles, spread out rats, moving group of rats;
Excessive friendly fire damage

Attack and damage pattern

Normal attack deals X damage on impact + a total of Y damage over 2 seconds
Charged fireball deals damage to targets it pierces, then it detonates for x1 to x2 damage (based on charge duration) and sets the targets on fire, dealing additional y1 to y2 (varies for unknown reason) fire damage over 2 seconds

• normal attack hits single target and has decent range, accuracy and good damage against all targets, but can get caught on obstacles because of the fireball radius; it kills clan rat on nm in one shot
• there is a 0.27 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual shot
• the fireball itself is the same as conflagration staff’s fireball, but fire rate is 25% slower
• charged attack flies slowly through rats and teammates and detonates when it hits a solid surface, or an armored / resistant target; the closer the target is to the explosion, the more damage and stagger it takes
• charging increases the damage, the fireball radius and the explosion radius; the minimum charged has an explosion radius so small that can hardly be considered an AoE; the maximum charged is a huge projectile that tends to get caught on various map objects or in narrow space and explodes prematurely near the team
• there is a 0.3 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual shot; that makes you unable to shoot charged fireball under 2 or more attack speed buffs, because the shot is cancelled by the next action, release your right click when it happens
• to maximize the damage output, hit the rats in a way that they are knocked back into the explosion center, so that they receive both the pierce damage and explosion damage; it is very difficult because of the slow projectile and the trajectory, especially when the target is moving; for that reason it works best at choke points, or when you can bait the rats to run a straight line to you
• medium – maximum charged is fantastic for SV mixed in horde, it explode on the SV dealing damage and serious stagger and push all the rats back, also you don’t need to calculate the landing position of the explosion
• charged fireball direct hit can instantly kill packmaster; to damage ogre efficiently, you want to spam minimum charged at its belly or back so that the explosion can reach its unit center
• charged piercing is the only attack that does more friendly fire damage than damage to rats; position yourself or jump to avoid shooting through teammates
• overheat system summary: you only take damage when you vent above the first 25% threshold; the vent speed and vent damage increase the higher your overheat is; there is a slow passive cooling even when you don’t vent; you will explode when you reach max heat, taking all your hp away
• channeling rune is almost mandatory, as venting can hurt without it, which greatly reduces the frequency at which you can use the staff, and your melee performance suffers on high heat
• on-hit traits can be triggered by the normal attack and the charged fireball on all targets
• on cata you will need at least 2 hits to kill most targets (except maximum charged on slave rats), so regrowth is better than bloddlust; on nm slaves and clan rats can die from the direct damage so it’s a difficult choice
• haste has a pretty good chance to trigger in large groups and gives you 5 seconds of free magic
• berserk has the same effect as haste, but lower proc chance on cata and never helps with ogre fight
• mastercrafted affects the normal attack and minimum charged fire rate, but doesn’t speed up your charging
• hail of doom affects both attacks, helps to get your kills faster if you run bloodlust etc.
• knockback loses value because all attacks already stagger SV and gunner
• lobbing a charged fireball at your downed teammate is easy, even over large distances, so distraction comes in handy sometimes
• poison flask can proc a lot if you use the charged attack pierce effectively and aim well with the explosion
• overall fireball staff is similar to conflagration staff, deals more direct damage but requires much more finesse from the user
• the maximum charge of both staves have about the same damage profile, but fireball staff can fully charge much faster; on the other hand fireball staff requires charging to do more damage, while an accurate minimum conflagration charge can do maximum damage

• BW Mace + Fireball Staff Guide from Vermintide

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Channeling rune + Distraction
Red variant B: Bloodlust + Hail of doom + Channeling rune

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth + Haste + Channeling rune <- best
• Bloodlust/Regrowth + Haste/Berserk/Hail of doom/Mastercrafted/Stability/Knockback/Distraction + Channeling rune

Bright Wizard – Conflagration Staff

Strong against / Strengths
Horde, grouped up rats, mass SVs, packmaster, assassin, ogre;
Good crowd control and horde kill speed, helping teammates instantly, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Specials behind obstacles

Attack and damage pattern

X+Y = attacks deal X damage on impact, plus total of Y fire damage over 4 seconds (2 seconds on the edge and for normal shot)

• normal attack hits single target and has decent range, accuracy and good damage against all targets, but can get caught on obstacles because of the fireball radius; it kills clan rat on nm in one shot
• there is a 0.27 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual shot
• the fireball itself is the same as fireball staff’s normal attack, but fire rate is 20% faster
• charged attack creates a fire blast on the ground, requires no projectile, which makes it very easy to target what you need; the closer the target is to the center, the more damage and stagger it takes
• charging only increases the blast radius, not the damage
• the volume of effect has a vertical height of 6m, you can use it on rats climbing on a wall
• when hitting a creature with the blast, only the highest damage region applies, but subsequent DoT effects stack and expire independently (so you can spam minimum blast on ogre)
• “finger rolling”: spamming quick blasts is faster if you release right click after each cast; theoretically, against few targets, blasting each one with blast core gives you highest DPS
• charging the blast to full creates a similar effect to the fire bomb – burning patch on the place it was detonated
• fire patch lasts for 4 seconds; rats will try to avoid the fire patch if possible, you can use this tactically to limit approach routes and force a dispersed horde to condense (for your crossbow / shotgun-loving teammates)
• rats will attempt to pass through the fire patch if there is only one path to advance, but the patch can stagger normal rats, and rats will pile up behind the patch; you can use maximum blast to group up rats and barbecue them with a few short blasts
• to damage SV, try to hit him 2-3 times with the core of the minimum blast or try 4-5 normal shots (depending on difficulty); medium and maximum blasts work better against multiple SVs, e.g. patrol, and you can stagger most of them
• only the blast core can do friendly fire; the DoT on teammates is visually annoying and disrupts aim and healing, so try to avoid unnecessary charged attacks close to your group; in emergency, however, don’t hesitate to burn them or your own feet
• the blast core can instantly kill packmaster, and spamming minimum blasts is the best way to damage ogre; you can also knock assassins off mid-leap or on top of teammates
• it is easy to kite with this staff as you can dodge and cast conflag to slow the rats
• some points about crowd control…
• overheat system summary: you only take damage when you vent above the first 25% threshold; the vent speed and vent damage increase the higher your overheat is; there is a slow passive cooling even when you don’t vent; you will explode when you reach max heat, taking all your hp away
• channeling rune is almost mandatory, as venting can hurt without it, which greatly reduces the frequency at which you can use the staff, and your melee performance suffers on high heat
• on-hit traits can be triggered by the fireball and the blast on all targets, but not the fire patch
• regrowth is great for targeting large groups with the blast, especially on cata, you can get bloodlust on melee and get heals when the rats burn to death
• bloodlust can be more useful on nm, you can score many kills with the normal attack there
• haste has a pretty good chance to trigger in large groups and gives you 5 seconds of free magic, almost 2 full blasts
• berserk has the same effect as haste, harder to trigger when you mostly use DoT to kill, and less proc chance on SV and ogre
• mastercrafted has very little effect on normal attack (which is faster than fireball staff already), works on minimum charged blast when you do “finger roll”, but doesn’t speed up your charging
• hail of doom affects only the normal attack
• knockback loses value because all attacks already stagger SV and gunner
• distraction is easy to trigger and greatly outweighs the friendly fire damage you deal with the blast; you can sustain dying teammates practically forever
• poison flask has very high proc chance and can improve the damage output a lot, especially those hit by the edge of the charged attack
• the conflag fills a similar role as the fireball staff but probably has better handling, and there are some tactical features going with it
• the maximum charge of both staves have about the same damage profile, but fireball staff can fully charge much faster; on the other hand fireball staff requires charging to do more damage, while an accurate minimum conflagration charge can do maximum damage
• the red version has worse regrowth percentage than orange version

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth 5% + Stability + Knockback 20%
Red variant B: Regrowth 5% + Channeling rune + Distraction

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth + Haste + Channeling rune <- best
• Bloodlust/Regrowth + Haste/Berserk/Stability/Knockback/Distraction + Channeling rune

Empire Soldier – Mace

Strong against / Strengths
Horde of any size, 1-2 clan rats on cata;
Very good crowd control, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low horde kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow), slower light attacks and low movement speed during light attacks

Attack and damage pattern

• first three normal attack hits infinite amount of rats, two swings are almost horizontal and the third is upward diagonal; x2 headshot multiplier applies only to the first target of normal 1+2, you can kill nm clan rat or cata slave with it
• the fourth single-target attack has white weapon level damage; the third swing gives you some move speed, but no other benefits neither; better skip them by block or push cancel
• the attack speed is 17% slower than Bardin’s 1h hammer, which could result in rats hitting you first instead of the opposite
• charged attack hits one target vertically, kills cata clan rat in one hit and solid damage against armor, ogre and packmaster as well; this is the fastest among all the single target 10-damage charged attacks of all melee weapons, but the range is a bit short
• charged attack following a normal attack is extremely fast, you can stagger a rat with normal swing first for extra safety
• you can deal with any number, any density and any formation of normal rats (not being surrounded, of course) using the normal attacks alone and dodge dance; no need for block or push
• normal swing stop when it hits armor or resistant target, it can stagger the SV but be ware of the rats on the other side of it; if you want to control the horde, better keep your distance so the swings don’t come in contact with armor
• normal attack reach is better than the push radius
• unique to 1h/2h hammers and mace, the push begins faster after the block
• this weapon is among those whose block move speed equals push move speed
• regrowth normal is clearly marvelous with normal 1+2 spam; bloodlust can work on nm, or if you kill a lot of ambient clan rats with charged attack on cata
• killing blow only works if you deal damage to the target and is only available on blue and red, it can proc on headshot on 3rd to infinite targets and the first two normal attacks are close to horizontal to make it procs more often; for SV you can smack its head until it procs
• charged attack is useful enough for charged traits to have a place, but you will need to adjust your play style for them
• berserk works well with charged attack, which can be initiated when you get in contact with a horde
• scavenger can be combined with regrowth normal and works best with charged attack on ambients; good for supplying the ranged weapon for kill speed
• devastating blow and stamina traits that assist push let you fulfill the crowd control role better
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• heoric killing blow is more interesting because of the fast charged attack, but the range is low so it requires better dodge skill from the user; aim at ogre’s head for better damage and reach
• poison flask can buff your damage a lot while you control rats by normal attacks
• the red mace has a ridiculous combo of killing blow + bloodlust + swift slaying normal
• on cata, the blue variant has almost the same damage breakpoints as orange / red variant (except charged attack), and you can roll killing blow + regrowth normal on blue

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7% + Second wind
Red variant B: Killing blow + Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7%

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Killing blow + Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal
• (Blue) Killing blow + Regrowth normal

Empire Soldier – 1h Sword

Strong against
>2 grouped up rats, everything w/ killing blow;
Great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against
Relatively low SV and single cata clan rat kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow)

Attack and damage pattern

• first two normal attacks are fast swings with very long reach that hit 4 targets with x2 headshot multiplier; nm clan rat and cata slave die from 1 headshot, and cata clan rat dies from 2
• the second normal attack is a horizontal swing that can hit 4 heads and deal 6/4/4/4 damage; it can easily surpass most melee weapons in term of kill speed
• the third normal attack is a vertical slash with no headshot multiplier, it deals about the same damage as normal 1/2 headshot, but also good armor damage
• against a horde, tap block to cancel the third swing to get better crowd control; given enough space to maneuver and spread out the density, the normal attacks alone with dodge dance are more than sufficient to handle a horde, not even block or push is needed
• normal 1 + block cancel offers much more block active time, safer to use when you have low health
• charged attack hits infinite targets in a horizontal line, dealing damage to first two; it can be used to control high density rats, but the stagger duration is short, on cata it is even shorter than the time between two charged attacks
• facing dense horde, first charged + second normal combo is a good compromise of control and damage
• charged attack can stagger SVs and you can control the rats on one side of an SV
• to kill SVs, do two charged headshots and follow up with the third normal headshot; this combo deals a total of 12 damage and all 3 hits can stagger
• this weapon is among those whose pushes increases move speed, so you can push to crowd control and reposition at the same time
• regrowth normal is the best healing trait here; bloodlust can be used if you can do headshot and want swift slaying, it’s more viable on nm
• killing blow further improves the horde kill speed, and helps to reduce the size of horde into manageable numbers (can be used to get lucky procs on SV headshot too, and the 3rd swing procs on body); unfortunately it’s tied to off balance, which is not so useful without improved guard / second wind
• scavenger benefits nicely from horde kill speed
• when swift slaying is on, it might be more efficient to do normal attack spam instead of normal 1+2 + block cancel
• second wind on a 1h weapon helps you kite, deserve a special mention
• devastating blow let you push SV overheads if you can’t dodge; note that for a few normal rats it can throw them away so far that normal swings can’t hit multiple of them anymore
• heroic killing blow procs on all targets hit by the charged attack; the charged attack is not very fast, but the long reach allows you to keep hitting ogre safely in any direction
• the red version has regrowth normal + swift slaying normal which works very well with the normal attack spam dodge dance

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Swift slaying normal 7% + HKB
Red variant B: Regrowth normal 10% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+Off balance)
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Improved guard/Second wind + Off balance
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Regrowth normal + Swift slaying normal + Devastating blow

Empire Soldier – Mace & Shield

Strong against / Strengths
Grouped up rats;
Good crowd control, staggering multiple SVs, great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Armor, specials, ogre;
Very low damage output (can be remedied by killing blow), low mobility, very low armor damage

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits infinite targets, great for on-hit traits, but damages only 2 targets and has no headshot multiplier; the third single-target attack has white weapon level damage, better skip it by block or push cancel
• charged attack is a shield bash that damages only one target but creates a secondary bubble effect that pushes other rats and SVs back, it only stops SV overhead if it’s the first target
• charged attack speed is slower than sword & shield by 40% (although the first charged attack has a better bubble radius); you should rely on normal attacks and pushes to control crowds
• against SVs, your best bet is still bashing it for 7-10 times with the shield; however, it’s better to control it, kill it with a gun or let teammates do the work
• default push stagger is like other weapons with devastating blow, enough to stagger SV in overhead animation; push radius is longer too (2.5 vs standard 2)
• against dense horde, after you push the first row of rats, the second row can still rush to you so be ready to block or push again
• try to push the rats only when necessary and only in one direction; panic pushing will just spread out the rats and put danger to the team
• don’t use the shield bash on patrol, as the SV overhead has longer reach than your bubble; instead push the closing in ones and move backward slowly
• the superior push is the best defensive action you can get in the game, it protects the user and the teammates if they stand next to you; if you buff it with improved pommel then no rat can touch you
• without any trait, 5 stamina allows you to block an SV overhead and not have guard broken, and it’s easier to get a revive when surrounded
• endurance procs give you full stamina, which is obviously more effective on a shield than on other weapons; it procs on all targets of the shield bash (except for the primary target because bug)
• perfect balance reduces the stamina regen delay and allows you to push again faster when you are out of stamina
• devastating blow is controversial: it flings the rats back and stuns them, making them easy to mistake for dead; some players love this, some consider it counter-productive as you have to chase them around; if you take it, make sure you finish off the stunned ones
• one definite advantage of devastating blow is that mace strike can stop SV overhead and shield bash will now stagger all SV overheads inside the bubble, if you are the host
• regrowth normal is a great choice, you can control the rats while healing to full
• bloodlust is usable only on nm, where the mace can at least kill a slave in one strike
• swift slaying normal has decent uptime, but you can’t roll regrowth normal with it
• regrowth charged and swift slaying charged suffer from low percentage, and you probably won’t use the charged attack; they proc on corpses
• scavenger requires you to actually kill something, which may be a problem, especially on cata
• killing blow is available only on red and blue, hits with 0 damage won’t proc it, but it can proc on headshots on 3rd to infinite targets and on SVs; it gives you a way to deal with SVs, you can use first two swings to stagger rats on each side of an SV and use the third attack on it
• heroic killing blow is weird – each rat (including corpses) in the bubble rolls for a chance to proc it, but it only applies to the primary target; it also has a bug that it never procs on a single target; however it is less effective than sword & shield
• poison trinket can buff your damage output quite a lot, but your teammates would still get the kill most of the time
• poison flask and endurance work the same way as HKB on shield bash
• weapon model on the orange version has a pretty obtrusive shield, move your camera down in order to see pass the shield; or use QoL/VMF to change its model to the blue / red version
• no matter what traits you take, you simply won’t kill much on cata; get used to being the slow moving impenetrable shield wall and leave dealing damage to others
• the red version has the only off balance available on any shield, it’s even accompanied by improved guard; it opens up a new block-focus play style, push the rats to get aggro and bait them to hit you
• please recommend a good gameplay video

List of traits

Red variant A: Killing blow + Improved guard + Off balance
Red variant B: Killing blow + Swift slaying normal 7% + Improved guard

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk/Scavenger + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Regrowth normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• (Red) Killing blow + Improved guard + Off balance
• (Red) Killing blow + Swift slaying normal 7% + Improved guard
• (Blue) Killing blow + Regrowth normal

Empire Soldier – Sword & Shield

Strong against / Strengths
Grouped up rats;
Good crowd control, staggering multiple SVs, good heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Specials;
Low armor damage, low mobility, below average horde kill speed

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attacks hit 3 targets for 2 to 3 damage with 2x headshot modifier; 1st normal attack does 3/2/2 damage and has no move slow, significantly better than the rest; headshot kills the first clan rat on nm or first slave on cata; cata clan rat dies from 2 headshots
• charged attack is a shield bash that damages only one target but creates a secondary bubble effect that pushes other rats and SVs back, it only stops SV overhead if it’s the first target
• charged attack speed is fastest of all shields, slightly faster than axe & shield
• to deal with SVs, it’s safer to just bash it for 7-10 times while staggering the surrounding rats, much better than sword to the head, which is faster but causes no stagger
• default push stagger is like other weapons with devastating blow, enough to stagger SV in overhead animation; push radius is longer too (2.5 vs standard 2)
• against dense horde, after you push the first row of rats, the second row can still rush to you so be ready to block or push again
• try to push the rats only when necessary and only in one direction; panic pushing will just spread out the rats and put danger to the team
• don’t use the shield bash on patrol, as the SV overhead has longer reach than your bubble; instead push the closing in ones and move backward slowly
• there are many styles to play sword & shield, you can dodge dance like using a weaker 1h sword; you can push rats and finish them with the sword, or slash the standing ones; you can use shield bash primarily or just push rats for crowd control and let teammates to do the killing
• be ware that your sword swing can cancel the previous stagger from shield bash or push
• the superior push is the best defensive action you can get in the game, it protects the user and the teammates if they stand next to you; if you buff it with improved pommel then no rat can touch you
• without any trait, 5 stamina allows you to block an SV overhead and not have guard broken, and it’s easier to get a revive when surrounded
• endurance procs give you full stamina, which is obviously more effective on a shield than on other weapons; it procs on all targets of the shield bash (except for the primary target because bug)
• perfect balance reduces the stamina regen delay and allows you to push again faster when you are out of stamina
• devastating blow is controversial: it flings the rats back and stuns them, making them easy to mistake for dead; some players love this, some consider it counter-productive as you have to chase them around; if you take it, make sure you finish off the stunned ones
• one definite advantage of devastating blow is that shield bash will now stagger all SV overheads inside the bubble, if you are the host
• regrowth normal is a great choice, much more viable on cata than bloodlust; you will need to get a lot of headshots and / or buff kill speed with swift slaying normal to make bloodlust work; on nm both are ok
• swift slaying normal has decent uptime, but you can’t roll regrowth normal with it
• regrowth charged and swift slaying charged still suffer from low percentage, but they can do their job depending on your play style; they proc on corpses
• scavenger requires you to actually kill something, which may be a problem
• killing blow is available only on blue, and bodyshot on SV won’t proc it
• heroic killing blow is weird – each rat (including corpses) in the bubble rolls for a chance to proc it, but it only applies to the primary target; it also has a bug that makes it never procs on a single target; combined with fast charged attack it can be useful for SV in horde (or last stand?)
• poison trinket and endurance work the same way as HKB on shield bash
• weapon model on the orange version has a pretty obtrusive shield, move your camera down in order to see pass the shield; or use QoL/VMF to change its model to the blue / red version
• the red version has the pretty strong combo regrowth normal + swift slaying normal which don’t require killing to work

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Perfect balance
Red variant B: Regrowth normal 10% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Improved guard

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal/charged + Berserk/Scavenger + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal/charged + Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal/charged + Scavenger/Improved pommel/Endurance/Perfect balance + HKB
• (Red) Regrowth normal + Swift slaying normal + Improved guard
• (Blue) Killing blow + Regrowth normal

Empire Soldier – 2h Hammer

Strong against / Strengths
Horde of any size, SV, packmaster;
Good crowd control and stagger, larger push radius

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low horde kill speed, low mobility, crowd control requires charge up time

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack deals 9 damage to single target with +1 headshot bonus, killing cata clan rats on headshot but takes you double time to kill if you miss the head; it can stagger SV overhead and kill it in 2-3 hits
• normal attacks alone are very slow and there is a lot of wasted idle time after the attack is landed, during which you are vulnerable and suffer from significant move slow; either do (1) block cancel or (2) quick switch cancel after an attack to gain some benefits
• the two inputs above also make normal attacks faster, (1) is safer but you will receive the block move slow, and there is a rather huge gap between the hit and the block; (2) doesn’t put you in block state, but makes your attacks even faster and let you move faster to approach the next target (optimal input gives you near 100% move speed)
• you cannot block during 0.3s-0.7s of a normal attack, which can be problematic as the attack only hits a single target and both your block and attack might be too slow to deal with another rat attacking you, and you can only dodge; for this reason it is safer to use charged attack against >2 rats unless you are sure the other rats won’t catch the opening
• normal attack kills packmaster with one headshot
• charged attack hits infinite targets, dealing 5/3.5 damage to only the first two rats, below average horde damage but still better than pushes or shield bashes; note that it stops when it hits an armored / resistant target
• charged attack is characterized by its knockback and long stagger duration for crowd control, but beware that the stagger strength is lowered for the 3rd target and up, specifically those hits don’t stagger SV overhead; low attack frequency often suffers from stagger overwrite: attacks from teammates can overwrite your stagger by a weaker one
• the main advantage of the charged attacks (over 1h hammer / mace) is that it inflicts huge knockback to SVs, combined with dodges to control the direction, you can knock the SV to the backline of the horde and provide time for you and the teammates to deal with normal rats; 2h hammer also has longer reach than 1h hammer / mace
• move the camera and/or dodge in the direction of the swing to hit and stagger more rats; also try to aim at head level as every headshot deals +1 bonus damage, on nm headshot kills the first clan rat
• try not to spread out the rats when you knock them around, as it is harder for teammates to defend from them; e.g. when swinging from right to left, make sure to start from hitting the right-most rat so all rats are knocked to the left, concentrated and a smaller angle to defend; e.g. if you are on the right edge and the next swing is left to right, dodge and turn your camera left so rats are knocked backward
• normal attack follow up is very fast after a charged attack, mixing them in the attack flow would improve the damage output as that of charged attacks alone is quite low; but beware of the opening from normal attack
• charged attack grants you moderate move speed boost, making it easier to “joust”[vermintide.fandom.com] with compared to great axe/2h swords as you can get back to the original position; combined with dodging to cancel charging move slow will give you >100% move speed, pretty rare on a two-handed weapon
• the only crowd control attack requires charging means that you often need to hide behind teammates or initiate with a push to start charging up
• unique to 1h/2h hammers and mace, the push begins faster after the block; for 2h hammer it can compensate for the slow attacks as a panic button
• another feature of the 2h hammer is the larger push radius which is identical to the shields (2.5 vs standard 2), utilizing pushes is probably a safer way to do crowd control
• compared to charged attacks for crown control, push keeps you in block state and has effect in all directions, while the downside is stamina cost and the lack of damage
• with the aid of some stamina traits, you can quickly repeat push + normal attack to rush kill SV in a horde safely
• dodge is very poor, dodge trinket solves the low dodge count but not the dodge distance and dodge speed
• hitting corpses with normal attack doesn’t consume the target, but animation stops and the hammer might not hit the living target behind
• bloodlust works best with the normal attack that has one-hit kill potential, and charged attack that always kill 1/2 slave rats on nm/cata
• regrowth charged might be tempting, but its effect is limited to larger horde, and even then the teammates might kill the rats too quickly
• with low mobility and slow crowd control attack, a stamina trait is recommended for both offense and defense
• improved pommel pairs naturally with the stronger pushes, devastating blow gives you more space to charge up and it’s the only way to control multiple SVs; both of them reinforce the crowd control role
• perfect balance and endurance can work better if you attack more often than push
• swift slaying buffs mobility and attack speed, the weaknesses of 2h hammer, but it takes more practice to maintain the attack rhythm
• berserk makes your charging process uninterruptible
• scavenger blocks bloodlust and stamina + devastating blow, but you can try it with healing on ranged, e.g. shotguns
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push
• heroic killing blow procs on all targets hit by the charged attack
• damage boon lets you kill cata clan rat on body hits, kill 2nd cata slave rat with charged headshot, and reduces number of hits to kill cata SV by 1
• poison flask trinket can inflict poison to all the rats hit by the charged attack, and occasionally upgrade cata clan rat body hit to a kill, a good pair to the 2h hammer if you have the trinket slot

List of traits

Red variant A: Swift slaying normal 7% + Scavenger + Perfect balance
Red variant B: Regrowth charged 3% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Perfect balance

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlus + Improved pommel/Perfect balance/Second wind/Endurance + Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal/charged + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Improved pommel/Perfect balance + Safety in numbers

Empire Soldier – 2h Sword

Strong against / Strengths
Medium density rats;
Great heal w/ regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
SV, high density rats, packmaster, ogre, gunner;
Low single target kill speed (can be remedied by killing blow), low mobility

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits 6 targets, the total damage when you hit all the targets is fantastic; it kills 3 slaves rat on nm on body; cata slave requires 1 headshot and cata clan rat requires 2; this is the faster way to deal with cata clan rats; the second swing has better headshot multipliers on later targets
• attack arcs are diagonal, combine dodges and left / right camera movements to hit more rats
• range of light swings is surprisingly lower than 1h sword’s, try to stay at the edge of the horde instead of embedding into it, otherwise you can get hits from second row of rats; change positions so that not too many rats can get to stab you; against dense horde, try to hit new targets with each swing instead of hitting the same 6 rats to keep you safe
• charged attack hits 6 targets with more damage, stagger and range; 6 slaves on nm will be cleaved in half and it kills the first clan on nm; you can kill cata clan rat with 1 charged + 1 normal, and 3 cata slaves in one swing if you headshot them, but on cata it has lower DPS than normal attack spam
• you can use charged when you come in contact with the horde, but charging move speed is low, dodge in the direction of the swing to get in striking position; when you can hide behind teammates, you can spam charged attacks by dodging back and moving forward to strike
• charged attack staggers SV, you can use it to control single SV while killing the rats on each side of it, but the armor damage is very poor
• you cannot block during 0.4s-0.7s after a normal attack
• time to switch away from this weapon after a normal swing is particularly long, noticeable when you try to do a quick snipe
• crouching while swinging increases your reach
• the dodge is better than most 2h weapons, but the block move speed is worse
• push radius is slightly better than standard (2.25 vs 2)
• if the rats are in a line towards you, sometimes it’s better to push them together so you can get a good swing through multiple rats
• normal attack spam works well with regrowth normal, swift slaying normal and killing blow; its killing power in horde also makes bloodlust and berserk procs very often
• swift slaying normal compensates the move slow and makes normal attack dodge dance easier
• killing blow is tied to safety in numbers, it gives a nice damage boost but to fight SV you can only hope it to proc on headshot
• devastating blow and any stamina trait that gives you more pushes help to protect yourself from SVs, to prepare the charged attack, and to push rats into your attack arcs
• safety in numbers can be triggered by attacks or push, you can try it with improved pommel / perfect balance
• you better use handgun / repeater for SVs; don’t take blunderbuss, it has overlapping role as the 2h sword anyway
• imo this weapon excels only as a horde grinder but it’s outclassed by the executioner’s sword, and has way too many weaknesses; it’s still a viable choice on cata but it will be more challenging to play
• the red version has both improved pommel and perfect balance and you can push till the world ends

List of traits

Red variant A: Regrowth charged 3% + Swift slaying normal 7% + Safety in numbers
Red variant B: Regrowth normal 10% + Improved Pommel + Perfect balance

Recommended trait combinations:

• Regrowth normal + Berserk + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Killing blow + Regrowth normal (+ Safety in numbers)
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger/Stamina/Devastating blow + HKB
• (Red) Regrowth normal + Improved Pommel + Perfect balance

Empire Soldier – Executioner’s Sword

Strong against / Strengths
Horde of any size, grouped up rats, clan rats on cata, SV, SVs mixed in rats, packmaster, ogre; Good crowd control, good heal w/ regrowth or bloodlust

Weak against / Weaknesses
Low mobility

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attacks hit infinite targets and damages first 5 for low damage, you can stagger and control large numbers of rats with each swing, but what makes it shine are the headshots
• with the sweet x5 headshot multiplier, you can decapitate cata clanrat in one precise hit, while staggering all the others; against slaves, or clanrats on nightmare, you can oneshot up to five of them in each swing, lovely for bloodlust, scavenger and berserk
• the first two attacks are horizontal and scoring headshots is very easy after a bit of practice; the following two are slightly diagonal, so you should get at least one headshot, or block/push to reset back to the two horizontal swings
• beware that after normal 2 or 3, the attack chain takes a much longer wait to automatically reset to normal 1, while block/push reset instant
• because of how the game calculates headshot damage, normal attack always deal 5 damage to SV in the head no matter how many rats are hit before that, and it still staggers the SV, making it great at dealing with SVs mixed in horde
• the charged attack is a bit too slow to be used often, attack speed traits can help to speed it up; it’s deals quite good damage to SVs with x2 headshot multiplier, but the hit box is small
• normal attack headshot deals 60 damage to packmasters and ogres, don’t bother with charged attacks
• time to switch away from this weapon after a normal swing is particularly long, noticeable when you try to do a quick snipe
• the dodge is better than most 2h weapons, but the block move speed is worse
• push radius is slightly better than standard (2.25 vs 2)
• after you push, you start with the 3rd normal attack which is diagonal; you can block or wait to reset the combo
• normal attacks will probably make up 95% of your usual repertoire and the targets hit are very good, so normal attack traits are quite useful, such as regrowth normal and swift slaying normal
• with good skill and aggressiveness, bloodlust can heal about as much as regrowth normal on cata, so take the one you want or check the trait combinations
• swift slaying normal gives you movement speed to compensate for the low mobility, with a bit of good aim you can murder entire hordes as they come at you and get out of most situations by simply swinging and turning around; dodge trinket and dodge dance can help too
• scavenger is good, but it’s an overkill when you can already deal with most enemies with the sword, and it’s not helping the melee performance
• dev blow can help you manage SV and give you more space to start the slow swings; it also allows you to interrupt SV overhead with normal attacks if you are host
• killing blow potentially upgrades all those 1.2 damage bodyshots to instant kills and you can kill SVs faster, but it’s only available in red and blue versions; it can also proc on the 6th to infinite targets if you headshot them; note that it can cause headshots to ogre do less damage (60 vs 40)
• because of the very strong crowd control ability for both trash rats and SVs of normal attacks, attack speed traits might help more than stamina traits for control and defense, which require push and block to work
• aside from the usual differences between the combos regrowth normal + berserk/killing blow and bloodlust + swift slaying normal, notice that only swift slaying normal can increase ogre DPS
• on cata, the blue variant has almost the same damage breakpoints as orange / red variant (except charged attack), and you can roll killing blow + regrowth normal on blue

List of traits

Red variant A: Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal 7% + Perfect balance
Red variant B: Killing blow + Regrowth normal 10% + Devastating blow

Recommended trait combinations:

• Bloodlust + Swift slaying normal + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Berserk + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Regrowth normal + Scavenger + Stamina/Devastating blow
• Bloodlust/Regrowth normal + Stamina + Devastating blow
• (Red) Killing blow + Regrowth normal + Devastating blow
• (Blue) Killing blow + Regrowth normal

Empire Soldier – Handgun

Strong against / Strengths
Specials, ambient SV, lined up SVs, patrol

Weak against / Weaknesses
Multiple specials, ogre;
Long reload time, armor requires headshot

Attack and damage pattern

• one bodyshot from this hand-cannon kills gasrats, assassins and packmasters on both nm and cata; it leaves SVs and gunners at 2 hp on nm and 8 hp on cata, on nm you can easily finish the SV with melee instead of waiting to reload and spending more ammo
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets
• the shots can stagger SV overhead
• on cata, always try to headshot SVs and gunners; generally speaking this weapon is more aim-skill based, ammo efficiency is very good if you can one shot everything, but it punishes missing shots
• normal shots and charged shots deal exactly the same damage; it takes almost half a second to zoom down the sight, the zoomed shot is pin-point accurate if standing still and has minimal spread while moving, but you move at 25% speed; the unzoomed shot is also fairly accurate while standing still, but the spread is horrible when firing from the hip on the move
• unlike most other games, crouching usually make the ranged weapons less accurate
• use zoomed shots to aim at the heads or distant targets, but it’s worth to learn shooting from the hip against closer targets as it has better fire rate
• try to shoot those idle SVs before they notice you, wait until they turn the head to make sure their head won’t move; once they are approaching it’s difficult to hit the head
• the shooting noise will attract nearby rats and SVs, so it’s better to shoot further away
• the weapon itself is identical to Bardin’s, but Kruber is taller and more suitable for the sniper job; only Saltzpyre can block your fire line
• press reload right after a shot to make reload faster, mastercrafted helps with the painfully long reload
• skirmisher not only allows you to strafe faster while aiming, but also removes the spread while moving and firing from the hip; great for making precise quick-shots in tight situations and let you adjust position for a better snipe angle
• each shot hits only 2 targets, rupture improves it to 4, useful for patrols, hitting specials through packed crowds, or thinning out hordes; Kruber is tall enough to shoot SVs and specials pass rats so rupture is less mandatory
• ammo holder gives you spare shots in case you miss, or just more ammo to be spent on clan rats and ogres
• bloodlust or scavenger might be useful, but without rupture you won’t kill that much and scavenger gives you only 1 bullet, even with ammo holder; regrowth is just worse than bloodlust
• skullcracker is better for the sniping job than hail of doom, as the second shot from HoD has a large spread
• hawkeye increases ogre headshot damage by 50%, worth trying if you don’t have a need for other traits; it doesn’t help with other targets though
• knockback has 40% chance but it has a bug to make it more useful
• devastating blow on your melee weapon can help to give you space to reload, or push SVs to allow for easy headshot
• if damage boon is on, you can one-bodyshot-kill SVs and gunners on nm

List of traits

Red variant A: Mastercrafted + Skullcracker + Bloodlust
Red variant B: Mastercrafted + Rupture + Skullcracker

Recommended trait combinations:

• Mastercrafted + Skirmisher + Rupture/Ammo holder/Skullcracker/Hawkeye

Empire Soldier – Blunderbuss

Strong against / Strengths
Grouped up rats, close gasrat and assassin, patrol & Krench w/ strength potion;
Good heal w/ bloodlust or regrowth

Weak against / Weaknesses
Spread out rats, armor, ogre, packmaster

Attack and damage pattern

• normal shot deals massive damage against normal targets up close, capable of killing all rats, globadiers and assassins on cata; the damage is heavily reduced over distance, however
• each pellet hits 3 targets, better than grudge-raker
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets
• there is a 0.1 second delay between pressing the shoot button and the actual shot
• if your field of view is not 65, then the crosshair size doesn’t represent the actual spread; practice in the inn to know the spread
• instead of charged shot there is a bash, damaging one target for medium damage (enough to kill a slave on nightmare) and knocking the others back; good for last second defense, stunlocking single SV, or arranging rats into a compact bundle before shooting; note that the range is shorter than grudge-raker’s bash
• notice that the bash radius is shorter than that of grudge-raker (1.5m vs 2m)
• fall back to reload after each shot and move forward to shoot, or flank group of rats when they are fighting teammates; try to fight rats at choke points, once they spread out the blunderbuss is less effective
• it shoots more pellets than grudge-raker, but they spread out more, makes it unreliable to kill single target at medium range
• the shot is loud, so expect to attract a lot of rats upon shooting
• the shot deals some damage to SVs, gunners and packmasters up close, but be ready to fire again, or finish them with a hammer
• despite the poor armor damage, each pellet can stagger an SV and you can clear small rats around the SV and easily kite an entire patrol while slowly killing them; drinking strength potion massively boosts your armor damage and you can wipe the whole patrol with a few shots
• strength potion also increases your friendly fire damage from 0.5 per pellet to 18; you can kill your entire party in one shot so be very careful
• mastercrafted is very useful, helps with the fire rate and keep the user from threats because the blunderbuss is expected to be used at close range, and it greatly affects how much you need to fall back facing a horde; improve reload speed further by pressing reload as soon as you shoot
• due to the sheer amount of kills, bloodlust and scavenger are great traits; you can get regrowth and scavenger procs from the butt-hits even with 0 ammo, damaging rats with your melee weapon and finishing them with the bash works great
• rupture improves each pellet’s targets from 3 to 5 and helps to get more scavenger or bloodlust procs with fewer ammo used
• bashing group of rats with regrowth is one of the best ways of healing in the game
• the ammo supply is low, though you tend to pick your shots more carefully with the blunderbuss, when firing at dense horde the ammo should deplete very slowly; ammo holder is useful anyway
• ammo holder doesn’t increase scavenger’s ammo return, so other good traits should take higher priority
• targeteer reduces bullet spread only, not the damage drop-off; it still makes the gun much more effective against distant targets due to more projectiles hitting them, making it a very good gasrat and assassin sniper, but also causes more pellets to be absorbed by the first targets in a horde, so it’s a trade-off; if you use it, fire at hordes from further away to adjust for the smaller spread
• hail of doom is more luck based than the other traits, and a waste on targets that doesn’t require more than one shot; its proc is done per shot, not per pellet
• knockback, on paper, helps with controlling multiple SVs in clutch situations, 40% is a decent chance given that you hit many SVs, there is a bug however
• scavenger on red version has slightly higher percentage, but the red doesn’t have mastercrafted
• blunderbuss is also a very effective Krench killer if your team can save str pot for the fight, see the link below
• full weapon explanation by the Blunderbuss Man himself

List of traits

Red variant A: Hail of doom + Skullcracker + Distraction
Red variant B: Ammo holder + Rupture + Scavenger 24%

Recommended trait combinations:

• Mastercrafted + Scavenger + Rupture/Bloodlust/Regrowth/Ammo holder/Targeteer
• Mastercrafted + Targeteer + Hail of doom <- for Krench

Empire Soldier – Repeater Handgun

Strong against / Strengths
Everything, especially multiple SVs, lined up SVs, patrol and ogre

Weak against / Weaknesses
None

Attack and damage pattern

• normal attack hits two targets, dealing decent damage to all enemy types; it kills all nm rats and cata slave in one bodyshot, and cata clan rat on headshot
• charged attack spins the barrels and starts firing rapidly, the damage is the same as normal shots; you can stop firing at any point and avoid wasting more bullets than you need, but you will also need to spin again
• the shots can penetrate armored and resistant targets
• the spin lasts only 4 seconds if you don’t shoot, and it will spin again automatically
• instead of using normal shots, you can consider charging and firing 2 shots, they will be pretty accurate
• charged attack is very effective against ogre and lined up SVs, for ogre try to get ammo and aim for the head; also it can damage 2 lined up ogres with 100% effectiveness unlike other anti-ogre weapons
• for enemies that requires 3 or more shots to kill, e.g. cata normal type specials and armor, charged shots should kill them faster even at medium to long range, especially if you wind up before the target gets into line of sight, although you waste some missed shots
• normal shots can cancel reloading so there is no reason not to reload; if you try to charge while reloading, then there is a trick/exploitable bug that the weapon can be spinning without animation while reloading (listen to the sound to find it out), it helps to get the charged shots ready earlier after reload, but can also mess up your reload
• charged attack might have the higher ogre DPS against multiple ogres when lined up, although such situations are rare in unmodded game
• extra capacity let you deal with multiple targets much better and less time spent on reloading overall
• rupture doubles the targets you hit, very useful for patrols, and with scavenger you can also use it against hordes and get all of your bullets back, but in most cases it doesn’t help with individual SV, special and ogre
• scavenger gives you 3 bullets per proc, 4 with ammo holder; worth running scavenger on melee if you can’t fit it on the gun
• haste increases firing speed, good for dealing ogre damage, and you can reload for free, but the reload must be finished within the 5 seconds of haste effect, effectively one free reload per haste; it triggers fairly frequently when shooting specials and SVs
• berserk has the same effect as haste, it triggers more on normal rats but less on specials and SVs, and it doesn’t help in the ogre fight at all
• for this weapon only, there are both mastercrafted (reload speed) and mastercrafted (attack speed) available, don’t get confused by the identical icons; mastercrafted (attack speed) allows you to kill specials and SVs using normal shots much faster, so you don’t necessarily need to charge
• targeteer helps both normal and charged accuracy, good for shooting ogre and SVs in the head
• hail of doom is better than skullcracker, because the headshot multiplier is only x1.5; both of them give at most 15% ammo efficiency and are worse than all the ammo traits, and the damage bonus is weaker than haste; hail of doom gives you slightly higher chance to haste
• regrowth gives you better healing on SVs, specials and cata clan rats than bloodlust
• by default the bullets can already stagger armor and kill packmaster quickly enough, knockback doesn’t add much value
• damage boon lets you kill clans on cata in one shot, making scavenger/bloodlust builds much more useful

List of traits

Red variant A: Extra capacity 50% + Targeteer + Scavenger 24%
Red variant B: Extra capacity 50% + Hail of doom + Skirmisher

Recommended trait combinations:

• Extra capacity + Scavenger + Rupture/Haste/Ammo holder
• Extra capacity + Haste + Rupture/Ammo holder/Targeteer
• Extra capacity + Targeteer/Mastercrafted attack/reload + Rupture/Scavenger/Ammo holder

Bots – Gearing up

If you are the host, bots use the weapons and trinkets you currently have equipped on your other characters. If a player joins and leaves, the bot that replaces him uses the equipment of the player, but until then, it’s worth thinking about your bot loadouts, whether you start the game with one or two bots and expect that place to be filled later, or you plan on playing completely solo.

Bots benefit from trinkets the same way players do, but due to some limitations of ther behaviour, some trinkets will obviously be useless. Bots won’t pick items, open chests, throw bombs or drink potions, so avoid all forms of duplicate-on-pickup/use trinkets

• Fish (dupe healing on use) is the only exception, but you want to avoid that as well, as your bots do heal often, but the fish will proc on the stupidest occasions and forcing your bots to use their heal and take a tome will become that much difficult. There are much better trinkets to pick.
• Lichebone is a great choice if you plan on taking 2 grims (assumes you have one more player with you, or a mod that allows bots to take grims
• Health share is useful for the same reason players take it – stabilises all characters in bleedout – just keep in mind that bots will rather use medkit on someone else than heal themselves, thus not triggering healtshare (healing potions work fine). Unless you are willing to manage what healing items bots take, or able to command them to use medkits on themselves (via mods), you might want to skip this.
• Bonesaw is a very good choice, as bots already take their sweet time to get to you and attempt reviving, this minimises chances of the revive being interrupted. Even if bots should block-revive now, this trinket can save a run.
• Gas protection – bots like to stand around in gas clouds and die pathetically, so this can save you from one globadier wiping half your party in one shot, especially during events or in bad spots where you can’t really pull back and avoid the cloud.
• Bull head will increase their health while downed, which happens quite often, making it more likely for you or other bots to save them
• Phoenix (faster respawn) – despite all your best efforts, bots love to stay behind, get caught by packmaster and assassins, chopped to pieces by stormies, stomped by ogres or just failing a jump over a gap, which means that in general they die more often than players. Having them respawn sooner is helpful, though I’d still prefer some of the trinkets above.

If you have all the trinkets mentioned and don’t want to bother with changing them all the time, a default setup of healthshare+lichebone+bonesaw/gas/whatever works well on bots and yourself.

Now that you have picked their trinkets, let’s talk about weapons. Bots spend a lot of time shoving and blocking, towards that end you want the traits on their weapons to support that. They have a hard time dealing with even one stormvermin, so weapons that help them with that are worth considering. They also like to use charged attacks and charge them to full, so keep that in mind when choosing traits.

Bots use ammo just like players, they won’t take the small ammo drops, but will replenish at the ammo boxes. Traits that increase ammo are not wasted on bots.

Bardin and Kruber
Their shields have plenty of stamina to manage almost any horde and handle stormies as well, while the other weapons either run out of stamina too fast, or the bots can’t use a proper combination of attacks.

The Mace/Hammer+Shield is better for them than the other shield options, as they can’t hold the charge as long on this option so have a smaller window of getting hit before the charged attack fires (they tend to hold the charge until the end rather than releasing as soon as it’s ready).

Good traits are anything that makes the stamina last longer and exerts more control over the field:
Devastating Blow
Second Wind
Improved Guard
Improved Pommel
They’ll hit stuff periodically, so Regrowth is a good third option.
You can also try blue shields with killing blow to make them deal more damage, for the price of sacrificing one defensive trait. Alternatively, red hammer&shield or mace&shield have pretty damn good traits (for a bot).

Handguns are great for both of them as well, their aim is superb and you’ll see them snipe specials every once in a while. Not something to depend on, but certainly a best ranged choice for bots.

Kerillian
She’s actually quite excellent with the Hagbane and will periodically do awesome things like solo the Stormvermin Patrol. Worth noting is that one of the updates during 1.4 removed friendly-fire from bots. So even if she unloads on you with Hagbane it won’t deal any damage. Longbow is another good option for her as she’s pinpoint accurate with it and it has more ammo than Trueflight.
Like the boys, she’ll spend a lot of time shoving and blocking, so similar traits apply.

Glaive – makes he better against stormvermin, but runs out of stamina fast
Bloodlust
Devastating Blow
Second Wind / Perfect Balance / Improved Guard / Improved Pommel

Sword and Dagger or Dual Swords
Regrowth
Devastating Blow
Perfect Balance / Second Wind / Improved Guard / Improved Pommel

Saltzpyre
He won’t show up very often, as the only way you can have him as a bot is if someone was on him and then leaves, but my choices for him would be:

1H Axe
Bloodlust
Devastating Blow
Second Wind / Perfect Balance / Improved Guard / Improved Pommel

Crossbow
Traits don’t matter as much, though Mastercrafted will make him waste less time on the weapon before switching back. I like Bloodlust / Regrowth / Mastercrafted just cause the weapon can do that.

Sienna
She’s not gonna charged attack hordes effectively, so Flaming Sword loses a lot of value. I would use Mace on bot just because the charged attack takes the least time and gives her a remote chance against Stormvermin. Similar traits for similar reasons:
Bloodlust
Devastating Blow
Perfect Balance / Second Wind / Improved Guard / Improved Pommel
She won’t use the staff tremendously well, but she will periodically use it. My experience has been the best with Bolt or Beam staffs.

Bots – How to use them

The bots should adapt to your speed, but check behind from time to time if one of them is not stuck or something.

They won’t take healing/tome if any human player’s slot for that item is empty.

They will swap tomes for healing when they can. If you are carrying a tome yourself, swap it for healing asap, so that you can control when and how to use it, and have a reserve tome slot, worst case.

You want to force as many tomes on bots as possible and carry healing yourself. Shoot them, burn them (nightmare+) if they have healing potions, or damage yourself if they have medkits.

They will drink healing potion at about 50% health. They won’t pass it, or let a bleeding bot take the potion instead, so be on the hunt for pots yourself. It’s easier to force a bot to drink his pot, however.

They will use medkits if someone is bleeding, or has red health, including themselves. Sadly, even if two bots have health share and both are bleeding, they would rather heal each other than use it on themselves.

For some reason, they are obsessed with ratling gunners – if there is one nearby, they may freeze, charge in his direction, hide behind corners, etc. If you hear or see a gunrat, don’t ignore it, even if it’s on the opposite rooftop.

They suck against stormvermin. The boys may decide to shoot it if they are far enough, but once engaged, they tend to lose. Shields should take one hit, but with other rats around they are hopeless. Kerillian with glaive can kill them on her own, but usually only if the storm is focused on someone else. You should prioritize killing storms yourself. Bardin can handle 10 rats much better than one rat and one storm.

In case of emergency, they are able to teleport to you. If they get stuck, running far enough may make them to port and get unstuck. Or it might get them swarmed and killed. They should also port to you if you get special’d.

As stormvermin and ratlings will be your main trouble, gear up accordingly. You want armor piercing and you will probably have to take down the ogre fast as well, before rats swarm you.

Try the level out a few times and watch movement their patterns. They often can’t drop down places where players do, and will take the long way. Be careful. For instance, in Man the Ramparts, they won’t drop down inside Hugeldahl Tower (the midpoint to the bell one) so you’ll have to clear the outside wall near the cargo winch and then backtrack a bit to use the ladder. If you drop down, they’ll run to the outside, try to use the ladder, and get murdered by rats. Never split up, because they also will take forever to help you if you get pounced.

Don’t jump near edges! They’ll try to jump on the edge with you and inevitably fall. Don’t do jumping in general, such as the hanging box in Waterfront, as they have serious trouble with it.

If the AI can’t path to you, it will simply freeze in place. If you see this, get off the object you’re standing on. Easily testable by getting on the wood pile via the barrel facing the statue in Town Meeting.

For nightmare, you just have to be very careful and understand your bot friends aren’t real human players. Often I think of their primary utility as distracting rats for you to kill them. If they go down, don’t try to save them if it’s risky, they’re not human friends. You can just pick them up when they respawn, so don’t panic if they go down. If you get packmastered or assassined half the time you’re dead anyway, even if they were up, because they’re so bad. So they’re disposable ablative armour for you that distracts rats. Be very careful with specials- learn the audio cues, play with headphones, and kill them with a special killing weapon fast.

On Cataclysm you have to realise that you have to be cautious, but you have to be cautious fast, because the special spawn rate is massive and the bots will take too long to kill ambient clanrat spawns. By the time they finish, another special or even horde is on you. You have to run around doing it all for them.